Together in Sinnoh
by Innosense
Summary: All he ever wanted was to be alone with her.All she ever wanted was to be alone with him.They finally have their chance.The Sinnoh region.No Brock,no Max.It's perfect for the new couple to get away from everyone.
1. Just us

"So what did you want to talk about Ash?" The brunette coordinator asked. "and make it quick. The boat is about to leave."

Ash looked down at the ground and sighed. "You're planning on heading to Johto after dropping max back in Petalburg right May?" the trainer asked as he scratched the back of his head.

May crossed her arms and thought for a minute. "I guess. But after that whole incident with Drew after the grand festival I'm not looking forward to it."

Ash looked up at the girl, his auburn eyes locking with her sapphire eyes. "Then come with me. The Sinnoh region has its own contest league."

"But Ash. Aren't Brock and Misty going with you?" May asked, taking an involuntary step back.

"Brock has to stay at the gym for a little while and Misty has to run the gym while her sisters are training, and…" Ash trailed off.

"And?" May urged him on.

"I don't want to travel alone. Even if it's just you, me and Pikachu I'll feel better. I've grown used to having friends there to support me. And I know you have too. Who would you be travelling with through Johto?" Ash asked.

May rested her chin in her hand and thought for a few seconds. "Probably Drew or Harley. Maybe even Brianna."

Ash looked back down at his feet. Pikachu stared up at him and nodded. "Pikapi. Pikachu. Pikaka."

Ash sighed, he knew he'd have to tell her the truth. "Look May."

"Hmm?" May acknowledged as she was interrupted from her thoughts.

"The entire time you've been part of the group. You're the only one I wanted around." Ash sighed. "I know Max tagged along so he could get a taste for adventuring and I thought he'd be gone before long. Brock was an unexpected surprise but a welcome one." He said, raising his head. "But you… I wanted my entire trip through Hoenn to be just me and you." Ash admitted. "I love you May. I just didn't get the chance to admit it before."

"A-Ash." May stammered, a blush crossing the bridge of her nose.

"I wasn't worried when you went home after the Ever Grande conference because I knew you'd be back." Ash smiled. "It made me happier than you'll ever know to see you again that day. Then Max showed up, and Brock joined up again."

"Ash please." May tried to interject.

"Max wouldn't let us have any time alone. Brock got the hint. He knew he was only there to try and keep Max occupied." Ash said. "And it was Brock who has been giving me advice on how to deal with this. I'm not looking for an immediate answer May. I'll be in Pallet for the next three days getting ready to leave for Sinnoh. Let me know if you want to come with me." He said as he turned to leave. "Hopefully this won't be good bye May. Just a see you later." Before he ran off.

"Ash…" May whispered.

"Come on May!" Max called from the railing of the ship. "The captain isn't going to wait any longer."

"Be right there Max!" May called back before she turned back to watch Ash run off. "No. it won't be a good bye Ash. Not by a long shot." She whispered to herself as she ran up the gangplank.

"So what did Ash want to talk about May?" Max asked.

May ruffled her little brothers hair. "Nothing Max, just wishing me luck on my future endeavors."

Max sneered. "You are such a liar sis. I saw the way he was acting. You admitted something. I bet you like him."

May giggled. Normally her brother was right on the money about this sort of thing. 'He mustn't be on his A-game today.' She thought. "Nope. Just wishing me luck."

"Then why'd he run off like that?" Max asked, figuring he was on the right track.

'He may not be on his A-game. But I am.' May thought to herself. "He's still travelling remember. He's got to be packed and ready before he has to leave home again. He also has to pick his Pokémon for the new league."

Max recoiled, his eyes wide. "No way. You called my bluff. You never call my bluff."

May laughed. "Even you have off days Max." She enjoyed getting the upper hand on her brother, even if it wasn't often.

* * *

Ash had slowed his pace to a brisk walk, he rested his hands behind his head as he looked up at the orange sky. "Do you think I blew it Pikachu?" Ash asked the electric type perched on his shoulder.

"Pika?" The lightning mouse asked.

"Did I drag it on too long, did I drop it unexpectedly? Or was the timing just off?" The fifteen year old asked.

"Pikapi. Pikaka pik Pikachu pika pika. Pikaka pika pikapi." Pikachu reaffirmed his friend.

"I hope so buddy. Otherwise it's Sinnoh alone." Ash sighed as he walked through Cerulean city. "Man it's already evening. It'll be night fall before we even hit Pewter." He complained to his electric type. "We could spend the night with Brock or Misty."

"Pikachupi" Pikachu smiled.

Ash laughed. "Alright buddy. We'll stay with Misty tonight." He scratched his loyal starter behind the ears as he headed towards the gym in the city center.

The doors automatically opened as he approached. Misty sat in the lobby watching TV waiting for something interesting to come on.

"Knock knock." Ash said.

Misty looked up and saw the trainer standing in the door way. "Ash!" She yelled as she ran over to him.

"Hey Misty!" Ash laughed as his friend hugged him.

"What brings you here?" The red haired gym leader asked as she let go.

"Me and Pikachu just saw off May and Max at Vermillion city. It's getting abit late so instead of trying to head through Mt. Moon towards Pewter we'd stop by and say hi." Ash told the girl.

"A place to stay the night?" Misty laughed.

Ash laughed along with her. "Yep. I might want to call my mom and tell her that I'm not going to be home tonight."

Misty nodded. "Good idea. The phones are over in the living quarters."  


* * *

"Mum! Dad! I'm leaving now!" May called out as she tied her new bandanna around her head.

"Okay dear. Have fun in Johto!" Caroline called from the living room.

"Are you sure you don't want to take Max along for this one too?" Norman called down from the upstairs bathroom.

"I'm sure dad." May rolled her eyes. "See you next year." She called out as she closed the front door. "Ash wouldn't want Max around again." She said to herself as she headed towards Rustboro city.

Less than twenty minutes had passed before May reached Rustboro city port.

"Excuse me. What ports do these ferries travel to?" May asked the ticket agent.

"Slateport, Lillycove, Mossdeep, Olivine, Cinnabar, Vermillion and Pallet." The ticket agent recited from memory.

"One to Pallet town please." May said as she slid her money to the agent.

After typing for a few seconds the ticket spat up through the slot in the booth.

"The ferry leaves in ten minutes. Get aboard." The agent told her.

May ran up the gangplank and stood on the deck, it would be a short cruise, about six hours. "Good thing I grabbed some food from the Pokémon center before I left Petalburg." She smiled.

* * *

Ash waited at the Pallet town port with Pikachu. It had been fun catching up with Misty and her sisters, a quick run in with Gary in Viridian city and he was back home the following afternoon. His mum had already packed his back pack with supplies when he got home. He headed over to Oaks ranch and dropped off Swellow, Donphan and Aipom, before reuniting himself with Pidgeot, Haunter and Charizard.

A quick dinner and a good night's sleep later he got up and headed out to the port to wait.

"Six hours it should take her reach me." Ash said out loud as Pikachu napped on the bench beside him. He reached over and pet the electric type to calm himself down. "She probably won't come. I mean why would she? I dropped it pretty suddenly two days ago."

Hearing Pikachu's tummy rumble Ash decided to feed his Pokémon. "All right everyone. Lunch time!" He yelled out as he threw all of his pokéballs in the air.

Sceptile was the first to appear, placing his trademark twig into his mouth he watched as the others materialized next to him.

Corphish was the next to appear, jumping into the air and shaking his claws about to declare his presence. "Corphish Cor."

Charizard landed with a thump and a roar. "Brauuuuuur!"

Pidgeot flew out and came back around, perching herself on Ash's arm, steering clear of the newcomers.

Haunter appeared from his new pokéball and hovered in place. "Haunter." He happily proclaimed.

"All right everyone." Ash called out, getting his Pokémon's attention. "I'd like everyone to say hello to Pidgeot and Haunter. Charizard you already know them."

Sceptile walked over and offered his hand to Pidgeot while Corphish danced around Haunter chanting his name.

Ash took the chance to get everyone's food ready. "All right lunch is on!" He called out as he placed their bowls on the ground. After rousing Pikachu to get some food he sat back down and pulled a Miltank cheese sandwich out of his bag and started eating.

It was a good few more hours of waiting and breaking up fights between Haunter and Sceptile before a ferry pulled into port.

Ash held his breath as he watched the people coming down the gangplank. "Help me look for her Pikachu." Ash asked his electric type as he recalled everyone else into their pokéballs.

Pikachu nodded and climbed on top of the shelter that they were standing under and scanned through the crowds. "Pika? Pikapi!" Pikachu called back excitedly. "Pikaka! Pikaka Pikapi!"

Ash looked up and scanned through the crowd. "Where is she Pikachu?"

"Right here." May said from behind him.

Ash jumped and turned around. "How did you get over there?"

May laughed as she walked over and hugged Ash. "I'm not wearing my red bandanna. That's how. Besides Pikachu knows when to keep his mouth shut."

Ash looked up and saw Pikachu rolling around on top of the shelter laughing. Turning his attention back to May he asked her "So you are coming with me?"

"After what you said. How could I not." May smiled sweetly as she clasped his hands in hers.

Ash's nose flared up red.

A thump got their attention and they turned to see that Pikachu had rolled off the top of the shelter.

Ash smiled and began to laugh. "Karma in action buddy. Karma in action."

Pikachu growled and prepared to give Ash the shock of a lifetime when he saw his trainer and May with their hands clasped.

"But Ash. About what you said that day. When you said the L word. Did you mean it?" May asked.

Ash pulled his hands out from hers and gripped her shoulders. "Of course I meant it May. I've never known anyone like you. Or anyone who made me feel this way. I can't explain when or how it happened, but it did."

"Ash." May whispered as her cheeks went rosy.

"I don't care if you don't feel the same way about me May. As long as I'm with you I have all I need in the world." Ash finished.

"Oh Ash. You have no idea how happy that made me!" May cried out as she hugged the trainer. "I thought I would have to say it first."

Ash gasped when he heard her say that. "You mean."

May nodded as she looked pulled out of the hug. "I love you too Ash. From the first day we met I could tell there was something about you that was different from other people."

"But I would've thought Drew…" Ash started before May cut him off.

"Sure Drew's a romantic, what with the rose and such, but that won't get him far enough." May smiled. "You have compassion and empathy Ash. He'll never have them."

Ash smiled as his mind wandered back to that meeting with Drew on the grand festival stage after it ended. 'Suck it Drew.' He thought to himself. "Come on." He said as he took Mays hand. "Let's get our tickets and get on the boat."

Pikachu leapt back up to Ash's shoulder and pointed at the schedule.

"The next ferry to Twinleaf town leaves in about half an hour." Ash read aloud. "It's going to be a long trip considering how far north it is. It'll be a good three days before we make land."

"With no Brock or Max around, it'll be the way we always wanted it to be." May said as she rested her head on his shoulder. "Three days is a decent price to pay."

"Oh yeah!" Ash exclaimed as he reached into his pocket with his free hand, "Professor Oak gave this to me to give to you." He said as he handed her a new Pokédex. "We'll need these in Sinnoh."

"So what do I do with my old one?" May asked.

"We'll send them back to Oak on the ship. He'll wipe their memories, upgrade them and give them to new trainers." Ash stated as they approached the ticket agent. "Two for Twinleaf please."

"So that's what he does with them. I always wondered what he did with the old pokedexes." May said.

"It's economical. They cost a lot to make apparently." Ash said as he took the tickets and handed one to May.

The trio walked up the gangplank and settled into their cabin.

"Looks like we'll have to share the bed." May noted.

"Not a big deal. You go and get changed first. I just have to take off my jacket and shoes." Ash smiled.

"What about your pants?" May asked coyly.

"What? Nah they're fine." Ash laughed.

May laughed as she stepped into the bathroom and got changed.

Ash sat down next to the bed and watched as Pikachu slept in between the pillows. "How he squeezed in there I'll never know." Ash smiled as he pulled some grass out of the fur on Pikachu's tail.

Ash turned when he heard the door to the bathroom of their cabin open. May stepped out wearing just a yellow tank top and her panties. She put her pack on the shelf next to the TV.

"I hope you don't mind me sleeping in just this." May asked as she slipped under the bed covers.

Ash turned a little bit red as he turned towards the bathroom. "I'm gonna take a shower before I get to sleep okay?"

"Okay." May nodded. She reached past Pikachu and grabbed the remote flicking turning on TV and flicking through the channels. When nothing caught her eye she switched over to the news.

"The Jenny in Cerulean city stated today that while the jailbreak was not very big, three prisoners escaped. All of them Team Rocket members. We have pictures now." The newscaster announced as three photos appeared on screen.

May waved her ring finger in the air half heartedly. "Whoop de frigging do. Jesse, James and Meowth got out of prison. They don't know where we are."

"We'll have the weather after the break." The newscaster said as the camera panned back to reveal the studio and the other newscasters while the shows jingle played.

"Enjoy a nice relaxing getaway at the Valor Lakefront hotel. We have five star accommodation and a three star restaurant on our grounds. We will be hosting the Wallace cup in a matter of months so please book your reservations now." The voice over announced before the picture changed to a black screen with white writing on it.

"This message brought to you by the board of tourism for Sinnoh, spoken by Professor Rowan and authorized by Sinnoh champion Cynthia." A faster voice spoke.

May's eyes sparkled as she watched the advert. "So that's what Sinnoh looks like. Wow."

Ash stepped out of the bathroom dressed in his shirt and undies.

"What happened to you pants?" May asked as she turned the TV off.

"Ugh." Ash groaned. "The zipper broke from the amount of times it got wet." He said before he shrugged and slid under the covers. "I've got a new set of clothes in my bag. So it's no big deal."

"Good night Ash." May said as she snuggled up under the covers.

"Good night May." Ash parroted as he turned off the lamp on the table next to him.


	2. Everything old is new again

The three days passed quickly as the couple spent their time enjoying the ferries luxuries. From the all Pokémon play's to the movie theater, even taking advantage of the fact they were the only two trainers on board to give Sceptile and Blaziken some practice.

Nights were a lot quieter as they ate at the onboard restaurant and snuggled up in bed.

"We will be docking at Twinleaf port shortly. Please make sure you have all your belongings with you before you depart." The intercom buzzed.

Pikachu woke up and nudged his trainer. "Pikapi. Pikapi." He yawned.

Ash strained his eyes and mumbled. "Not now Pikachu. Gotta get some sleep."

Pikachu rolled his eyes and touched his tail to Ash's nose before sending a weak jolt through it.

Ash sat up as the jolt ran through his body. "What was that for Pikachu?" He yelled.

Pikachu pointed out the window with a yawn. "Pikapi. Pik Pikachu pika, Pikapi, pika Pikaka."

Ash glanced out the window and saw Twinleaf port approaching. Getting out of bed he threw on his new shirt, which was mostly white with a shallow, black V across the chest, pierced by a sharper, orange V.  
His new jeans held to his legs a little better but still left room to move.

"May. Time to wake up. We're almost in Sinnoh." He whispered as he gently nudged her.

May brushed his hands away. "Just give me five more minutes."

Ash laughed softly. "We'll be docking in three minutes."

"Alright. Fine." She grumbled as she sat up. "You didn't have to yell earlier."

Ash shot a glare at Pikachu. "Blame him for sending the current through my nose."

Pikachu looked up at May with his Poochyena puppy eyes and whined. "Piiika."

"That's not going to work Pikachu." May huffed at him.

Ash picked the electric type up and placed him on his shoulder. "I'll deal with you later. In the mean time let's let May get dressed." He scolded his partner as he grabbed his bag off the floor. "We'll be waiting near the starboard gangplank." Ash said as he stepped outside.

"Okay." May called out as she pulled her clothes out of her pack.

She pulled her black shorts up over her panties before she slipped her armless red blouse over her head. A red skirt slid over her shorts before she clipped her green pack around her waist, hiding the split between the skirt and blouse giving the illusion it was all one piece.

After slipping on her shoes, socks and gloves she stepped out of the cabin while tying her green, pokéball pattern bandanna around her head.

Ash had finished scolding his electric type partner and was leaning on the railing, looking out towards the port. "Almost there. Sinnoh league here we come."

May rejoined them as the boat docked.

"Folks we have made land in Twinleaf port. I ask you again to make sure that you have your belongings before disengaging." The intercom buzzed again as the gangplank slid from the side of the boat.

The couple (plus Pikachu) were the first off the boat.

"From what I hear there are six different ports in Sinnoh. Including this one. Why did we disembark here?" May asked.

Ash looked at the coordinator. "We have to register for our leagues and Twinleaf town is the closest place to Professor Rowans lab." He told his girlfriend. "We'll have to head through a small forest area to reach it but it'll give us a nice chance to see a few of the new Pokémon here in Sinnoh."

May nodded. "All right. Sounds like a good idea. Hey maybe we should let our Pokémon see this place."

"Yeah all right." Ash agreed as he grabbed his five pokéballs. "Come on out everyone!" He yelled as he tossed them into the air.

May pulled her pokéballs form her pack and threw them in the air with Ash's. "All right guys take a look around!"

Sceptile and Corphish appeared next to Blaziken and Skitty while Charizard and Pidgeot sat next to Beautifly and Squirtle, finally joined by Haunter and Eevee.

"Oh wow." May remarked as she looked at Pidgeot and Haunter. "You caught some new Pokémon." She said as she pulled her new pokédex out of her bag.

The top opened up as the camera scanned the Pokémon in front of it. The image on the screen scrolled through all the Pokémon with a similar description. The image came to rest on Pidgeot as Dextina chirped out the description.

"Pidgeot, the bird Pokémon. Pidgeot is capable of flying at extremely high speeds. The gloss of its plumage indicates it's health."

"This Pidgeot was actually one of the first Pokémon I ever caught, weren't you girl?" Ash laughed as he stroked her wings. "She was only a Pidgeotto back then however."

May slid the pokédex over to Haunter and pressed the rescan button.

The pokédex came to a halt on Haunters picture fairly quickly.

"Haunter, the gas Pokémon. Haunter are known to be avid jokers and are often seen in cemeteries or near highly polluted cities."

"I never really caught this one, I used him to get Sabrina back to normal then left him with her." Ash explained.

"Pidgeot seems quite powerful. That's something I'd expect from you." May smiled. "Haunter, well I wouldn't trust him near valuables."

Ash laughed as he walked back over to May. "You say the sweetest things." He said before he pecked her lips. "I notice that you are actually short a team mate."

May grumbled. "I left Munchlax at home, as well as the recipe for my Pink Surprise to keep him full."

"Means everyone else gets more food right?" Ash asked.

"Right." May smiled.

After a short wander around the town with their Pokémon (and a few short apologies for Haunter.) Ash and May recalled their Pokémon and headed out into the forest.

"Whoa." Ash said.

"Piika!" Pikachu mimicked his trainer.

"Amazing." May stared, mouth agape.

The two pulled out their pokédexs and scanned the Pokémon in the area.

Ash's pokédex scanned a small, grey and black flying type as it glided through the trees.

"Starly, the starling Pokémon. Starly are considered an annoyance in large cities due to their numbers and high pitched call."

May's picked up on a small, black and blue feline-esque, electric type as it argued with a Starly over a berry.

"Shinx, the flash Pokémon. Shinx is able to store enough electricity in its fur that it glows at night."

Ash looked around for any other new Pokémon. When he spotted none he sighed. "I guess Pokémon are a lot more spread out in this region than they are in any other."

"Oh what's that?" May asked as a small yellow mouse stumbled in between the Starly and Shinx and stole their berry. "It looks like a Pikachu but smaller."

Ash saw it laughed. "A Pichu. Well that's a surprise. It looks like it only just hatched too."

"Pikachu." Pikachu nodded.

May hit the rescan button on her pokédex and pointed it at the small yellow mouse.

"Pichu, the tiny mouse Pokémon. Pichu is the pre-evolved form of Pikachu, Its electric attacks are too powerful for its undeveloped body. as such it can easily injure itself with it's shocks."

"If it just hatched then it should be easy to catch." May surmised as she pulled an empty pokéball out of her bag. "Pokéball Go!" She shouted as she threw the ball at the electric type.

"Pi?" The Pichu said as it turned its head just in time for the pokéball to impact it.

The ball opened and projected a red beam that grabbed Pichu and dragged it into the ball. The ball shut off its anti gravity systems and fell to the ground, the button on the front glowing red as it shook back and forth as Pichu struggled.

May watched with baited breath as it continued to shake before it came to rest. A chime came from the ball, indicating a successful capture.

"Yeah!" May cheered as she ran over and picked up the pokéball. "I caught a Pichu!"

"All right May. Raise it right and it will evolve into a Pikachu." Ash congratulated her.

"Come on out Pichu." May called as she threw the ball into the air and let the electric type out.

"Pichu?" The confused baby chirped as it looked around.

"Welcome to the gang Pichu." May smiled as she picked it up. "Let's see what attacks you know." She said as she thumbed the next button on the pokédex.

"Pichu. Registered trainer: May. Gender: Female. Caught in Route two-zero-one in the Sinnoh region. Moves: Thunder, quick attack, volt tackle, iron tail."

"Wow." Ash remarked as he pet Pichu's head. "She comes from a good line. You got lucky May."

"Alright!" May pumped her fist. "What do you say Pichu. Wanna come with us?"

Pichu turned to face May and smiled. "Pichu pichu." She chirped.

"Alright then. I'll let you sit up here." May smiled as she placed Pichu on her shoulder. "A good couple should have matching Pokémon after all."

Ash turned red and laughed as May walked over and took his hand.

The couple and their shoulder mounted Pokémon continued through the forest until they reached the outskirts of a small town.

"Coming through! Gangway!" A voice shouted behind them.

The four all turned to see a girl with blue, black hair in a black and pink dress tearing through the forest on her bike.

The couple released their grasp on one another and dodged out of the way, the sudden movement startling Pikachu and Pichu, the two electric types let loose a simultaneous thunder which homed in and fried the girl and her bike.

"Ow ow ow." The girl groaned as she lay on the street.

"Oh, are you okay?" Ash asked as he ran over to help the girl.

"We are so sorry." May added as she followed him.

Ash picked the girl up. "Come on. There should be a Pokémon center nearby. We can let her rest there while we register."

"Yeah okay." May nodded.

The couple ran to the far side of town and into the Pokémon center.

"Nurse Joy!" Ash called out as he ran up to the counter.

"Yes how can I help?" Nurse joy replied with her back turned.

"Well you can turn around for starters." May added flatly.

"Sorry I'm just a little busy with all these registrations." Nurse Joy told them as she turned around. "Now how can I help… oh dear."

"She startled our Pokémon so they shocked her." May told the Pokémon nurse as Ash and her followed Nurse Joy through the center.

"You're lucky this is a small town, so this center doubles as a doctor's office, I'm also qualified to work on people as well as Pokémon." Nurse Joy stated.

Ash and May's pokédexs started ringing.

"Pardon us we have to take these." The couple answered in unison.

They walked into the lobby and pulled out their pokédexs.

Ash opened his and hit the accept button.

"Ash, I've been trying to call you for three days!" Brock roared from the speaker.

"I've been on a boat for three days so there was no reception." Ash retorted.

"So you're in Sinnoh?"

May laughed silently as she opened her pokédex and pressed accept.

"May where are you? You're pokédex isn't showing up on my Pokénavs tracking screen." Max yelled. "The last time it sent out a GPS signal was in Pallet town three days ago."

"Max." May replied wryly. "Are you calling from your Pokénav?"

"Yeah why?" Max asked, the anger still evident in his voice. "You're in Sinnoh with Ash aren't you?"

"No of course not." May lied through her teeth as she blocked any more calls from Max's Pokénav. "We'll talk later, I'm about to go out to do my appeal." She smiled as she canceled her connection.

Ash finished his call and looked at May through gritted teeth.

"Brocks not…" May sighed.

Ash breathed a sigh of relief. "No he's not. What about Max?"

May smiled sheepishly. "He's angry. He knows. I forgot that Pokénav's can track a pokédexs GPS signature."

"But the signature should have changed when I gave you your new pokédex …" Ash trailed off.

"As far as he knows we are still in Pallet town Ash." May said as she walked over and hugged her boyfriend. "Let's head over to Professor Rowans and register."

Ash returned the hug. That had been so close to losing their alone time. "Yeah. Yeah alright."

The couple joined hands once more and headed out to Professor Rowans lab, stopping off at the Pokémart to pick up supplies.

"Any reason you need a costume?" Ash asked impatiently from outside the change room.

"I've been reading through the rules to this regions contests while we were walking here." May started as she stepped out. A pink flowing dress with a matching headdress finished with a golden circlet embedded with an emerald to hold it in place adorned her, showing off her impressive figure. "And it's forbidden to enter with street clothes, you need a dress or a suit to enter. How do I look?"

Ash stood and stared. "It suits you. It really shows off your figure." He thought aloud.

"Aww that's sweet. Alright then I'll get this one." May smiled as she ducked back into the change rooms.

"Did I uh… did I say that aloud?" Ash asked.

"Pika." Pikachu nodded.

"Pichupi." Pichu agreed.

Ash gritted his teeth. "Wow I cannot keep my thoughts to myself can I?"

"No you can't." may giggled from behind the door. "But honesty is always good."

Ash breathed a sigh of relief.

After the purchase they continued on toward Professor Rowans lab.

"Hey professor!" Ash called out as they walked in.

"Ash don't be so noisy. He could be in the middle of research." May scolded him.

"Oh yeah. But unless he's researching Pokémon from another region…" Ash started.

"Yes yes I'm coming." A gruff voice called from the back. "what do you want?"

"We're here to register sir." Ash called back.

"Ah new trainers? Here to pick up your starters are you?"

"No sir, we came from different regions." May explained.

"Oh. Here to register for the Suzuran league?"

"Well I am." Ash corrected. "My girlfriend is here to register for the contest league."

"Oh well she'll have to do that in a contest hall. The closest one is in Jubilife city. Finish this up will you Lucas?"

"Yes sir professor." A younger voice came from the back.

"Now then." An old man dressed in a white suit with a blue vest and red tie, accentuated by a pair of beige jeans and polished black wingtip shoes stepped out. "Hand me your pokédex young man."

Ash obliged and watched as the old man plugged it into a device that printed out a card from the bottom of it. The card had a mugshot of Ash off to the left hand side of the card, with mugshots of his team all off to the right hand side.

"Here is your trainer card young man." The professor said as he handed Ash his pokédex and the card.

"Uh thanks." Ash said confusedly.

"That's it. All you need to do is show that card to a gym leader and they'll know you are registered. The closest gym to here is in Orreburgh city." Professor Rowan said as something caught his eye. "Scott my good friend. I thought you were off looking for brains for you new frontier."

A rotund man dressed in a blue, palm tree print shirt and red shorts walked up to the professor, his eyes hidden behind a pair of pitch black sunglasses. A Pokénav hung around his neck. "Well I was, and I found six trainers who were willing to become Brains. I'm looking for the seventh now. I wondered if you had any recommendations."

"Scott?" Ash and May asked together. "What are you doing here?"

As if noticing them for the first time Scott turned to the young couple. "Well well well Ash and May. It's a small world after all. What are you two doing here?"

"We asked first." May responded.

"You heard why I'm here. After the success of my Battle Frontier in Kanto I'm thinking of opening a frontier in every region. Johto and Hoenn already have their brains, the buildings are under construction." Scott told the duo. "I see you've picked up a new friend."

"Yeah." May nodded. "I caught this little guy about an hour ago."

"But to answer your question." Ash interjected. "I'm here to take on the Pokémon league here and May is going to take on the contest league."

"Well I would wish you both the best of luck on your endeavors and then leave it at that but I notice Brock and Max aren't with you." Scott smiled. "Aren't you going to get lost?"

"Uhhh." The couple groaned in unison.

"Not to worry. Devon recently released a new Pokémon navigator model." Scott said as he dug through his pockets. "Here take these. They're smaller and have more features." Scott told them as he handed a blue one to Ash and a red one to May.

"Different colors?" Ash asked.

"They are the only ones I had left from the original supply that Devon gave me to pass around. I already sent one to Max. But don't worry. Uncle Scott knows what's what." Scott smiled. "You've got the couples version. They have their blocks active so that you can only call each other on them."

May turned her one on and scrolled through the features. "A happiness checker?"

Ash looked at Pichu. "That'll come in handy for determining when your Pichu will evolve."

"So Pichu don't evolve via stones like Pikachu?" May asked.

"No they don't young lady." Professor Rowan chimed in. "They use a less common method than simply leveling up or pointing a stone at it. When a Pichu is extremely happy with their trainer they will evolve to please the trainer that has put so much effort into it."

"So then it shouldn't be too hard to get this cute little girl to evolve." May smiled.

The door opened while the two trainers were chatting with their friends.

A boy with purple hair wearing a blue jacket with a black undershirt and grey jeans with purple sneakers stepped in followed by the girl from earlier.

"Ahh the other two have arrived. Be right back." Professor Rowan said as he scurried back into his lab.

The girl stormed over to Ash and May. "You two! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"What is wrong with us? You came charging through and scared our Pokémon." May shot back.

"No wonder they shocked you." Ash scolded the girl.

"Well you two rookie trainer should keep better control of your Pokémon." The girl shouted back.

"I don't think she knows who we are sweetie." Ash smiled to May.

"Yes she needs a lesson in manners doesn't she dear?" May smiled to Ash.

"Wow. You took a thunder from Ash's Pikachu and you're standing and walking right now? You're tough kid." Scott said.

"Dawn calm down." The purple haired boy yelled. "Let the rookie couple think they are important. We'll show them when we get our Pokémon."

"Alright Paul." Dawn grumbled as she slinked back over to him.

Professor Rowan walked back out with three pokéballs on a cart in front of him. The boy they heard earlier followed him out.

"Dawn, Paul. What took you guys?" The boy asked.

"I had to get Dawn from the Pokémon center after the happy couple over there roasted her and her bike." Paul said, signaling to Ash and May.

"Oh so you already met Ash and May Dawn?" Rowan asked.

"Wait. Ash as in Ash Ketchum and May from Hoenn?" Dawn asked, flabbergasted. "I heard Ash was coming here but I thought May was heading to Johto."

Ash and May said their goodbyes to Scott and headed out.

"So does it say when the Jubilife contest starts?" Ash asked as he clipped his Pokénav to his pants waist.

May checked her Pokénav and scanned the map over to Jubilife city. The contest hall lit up as a place of interest and opened details on the contest. "Tomorrow at around three pm."

Ash pumped his fist. "Alright then. Jubilife city here we come… tomorrow!"

"Tomorrow?" May asked. "Normally we'd be on our way out of town by now."

"Check the time May. It's eight o' clock at night, we should wait until tomorrow before we head out." Ash smiled.

"Alright then. To the Pokémon center?" May asked.

"To the Pokémon center." Ash nodded.

As they stepped in Nurse Joy was there waiting for them. "Welcome back you two."

"Hi Nurse Joy. Room for two for the night please." Ash said.

"Certainly. Any layout in particular that you had in mind." Nurse Joy asked.

"Umm. Single bed I guess. Is that okay with you May?" Ask asked.

"I'm fine with that." She nodded as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

"One couples room then." Nurse Joy smiled as she typed the information into her computer. "Here's your room key."

"Thanks." Ash smiled as he took the key.

May pecked Ash's cheek as the couple headed up stairs to the rooms.

The front doors opened again as Dawn, Paul and Lucas stepped in.

"Hi Nurse Joy." Dawn chimed happily.

"Hi Dawn, back so soon?" Nurse Joy laughed.

"For a room this time." Dawn grumbled.

"Room for three. No double bunk." Paul said.

"Sorry all we have left are double bunk rooms. I just rented the last non bunked room to a lovely couple with a Pikachu and a Pichu." Joy checked on the computer.

"Them again?" Dawn fumed.

"Again?" Joy asked. "They were the ones who brought you in after you were injured."

"Don't mind her Nurse Joy. We'll take a double bunk if nothing else is available." Lucas smiled as he reached out and took the key Joy handed him.

"Have a nice night you three." Joy called after them.


	3. Doing things in that Hoenn style!

Ash and May enjoyed a small laugh as they listened to the girl from earlier complain about them

"Timing. We have it." Ash whispered.

"Yeah. Better not press our luck though." May snickered as she unlocked the door.

As they stepped in May made a quick dash to the bathroom. "I'll be out in a few minutes. I'm just going to have a shower."

"Alright."Ash nodded as he pulled a chair out from under the desk. A quick search of the room revealed the remote in the top drawer of the bedside table.

Pikachu had already curled up on the bed with his tail curled around the length of his body to keep Pichu warm.

Ash chuckled as he pressed the power button on the remote. "Just like an older brother."

He flipped through the channels until he found the news.

"Press the Pokéstar button to select the news for the region you want." A female voice came from the speakers.

Ash followed the on screen prompts and selected the Hoenn region. The tail end of a story was playing as the sound came in.

"… mer Team Aqua leader Archie has disappeared to, none can say." The newscaster stated, the picture to the left of her changed to the Petalburg gym with the tagline Growing up fast. "Our next story takes us to undoubtedly the most famous gym in the region, the Petalburg city gym, where leader Norman and his wife Caroline wished luck upon their son Max who has just started his Pokémon journey today. Taking a Mudkip from professor Birch and his sister's Munchlax as his Pokémon."

Ash let a bead of sweat drop from his brow. "May is not going to like this."

"Reports say the boys motivation is to show his sister, a top rank coordinator, what real training is all about." The newscaster finished as she shuffled her papers. "After the break we'll have Ken Suctcliffe with all the contest news for today." The camera panned out to show the sports caster and weather girl talking with the lead anchor.

May stepped out of the bathroom in her usual nightly garb, a yellow tank top over her bra, showing off her panties. "Anything good on?"

Ash cringed. "Nothing much, just the news. And boy is there a doozy from Petalburg."

"Why do I get the feeling this is not going to be good." May sighed as she took a seat on the edge of the bed.

Ash used the rewind feature to go back to the news story and let it play as he watched Mays reaction.

"What real training is all about." May said in a mocking tone. "Even with Mudkip he'll lose to Roxanne."

Ash sighed as she stood up and pushed the chair back under the desk. He passed the remote to May and stepped into the bathroom to take his shower.

May slid herself under the beds covers and watched the contest news before switching to the movie channel. An action movie about a giant Seviper rampaging through a city was playing.

After a few minutes Ash stepped out of the bathroom wearing his black undershirt and a pair of light shorts.

May flicked off the TV and put the remote on the table and shuffled over as Ash climbed into the bed. She shuffled back over and wrapped her arms around his shoulders and lay her head on his chest.

"Comfy there?" Ash asked.

"Yup." May nodded as she closed her eyes.

"Alright then." Ash smiled as he stroked Mays hair.

May began to snore quietly.

Ash laughed softly as he rested his hands under his head.

A strange smell filled the room.

Ash sniffed as the smell reached his nostrils. "Smells like Bulbasaur extract mixed with Beedrill honey." Ash whispered as the scent made him drowsy.

When he came to he was watching May talking to Drew.

"So where are you headed next May?" Drew asked.

"I don't know." May responded. "You're heading to Johto right? Maybe I should come with you."

'This seems awfully familiar.' Ash thought to himself. He looked around and saw himself talking to Brock a few meters away, with a black, foggy presence hanging near them. A quick glance at the building nearby sent shivers up his spine. 'The Kanto Grand festival hall. I'm dreaming.'

"Is Ash headed anywhere?" Drew asked.

"I don't know. Why don't you ask him." May responded. "I have to go find Max. So I'll talk to you later okay?" She said before she ran into the contest hall.

Try as he might to get away, Ash found himself being dragged along with her. When she stopped behind Max he didn't lose his forward momentum. He threw up his arms and closed his eyes to brace himself for impact. After a few seconds of waiting he opened his eyes. May was gone. Only Max sat in front of him but try as he might he couldn't move.

Some familiar voices caught his attention, he tried to move his head and was surprised when it let him move this time. He watched himself and Drew walk into the stage area of the hall.

'It feels like I'm just here for the ride.' Ash thought. 'Like those cut scenes from Apokélypse 3 Spec ops on my computer back home.'

"Max when you're done here go find Brock." May said.

'Where is she? I can hear her but I can't see her.'

"Okay." Max responded, puzzled.

'Did we switch positions? No she would have been there when I turned around.'

All of a sudden he started moving, not voluntarily, like he had been possessed.

'Ugh. Now I get it.' He thought. 'Bulbasaur extract and Beedrill honey gives you weird dreams. I'm reliving one of my memories from May's point of view.'

Sure enough his head tilted down as he began to run and he saw May's outfit was on him. A helpless passenger to his own memories he watched as May took a shortcut through the ready room and slid behind the judging booths. When she rested her back against the booth a bright light flashed and Ash could move.

He poked his head out to the side and saw his dreamself's legs.

"So Ash, where are you headed after the battle frontier?" Drew asked.

"Probably the Sinnoh region why?" Dream Ash responded.

"You taking anyone with you?" Drew asked again.

"Depends on who is available." Dream Ash pondered. "Misty would be too busy and Brock said he has family business to take care of for a while. I guess I could ask May."

"You'd keep her from competing in contests." Drew shouted.

"What? No. I'm certain that Sinnoh has its own contest league." Dream Ash said as he took a step back.

"Still I think it's obvious she should come to Johto with me and Harley." Drew sneered.

"Why? So Harley can torment her some more, or you can be there to remind her that she's not good enough?" Dream Ash retorted.

"Alright." Drew shouted. "Talking bad about Harley is one thing. But you will not smear my good name." Drew said as he wound up to Punch Dream Ash.

Not even thinking Ash stood up and ran between his dreamself and Drew. "Stop!"

"May?" The two of them gasped.

"Drew I'm going with Ash." He shouted. " You showed me what a despicable person you really are."

"Now see what you've done!" Drew yelled as he pushed Ash out of the way to get at Dream Ash.

The last thing he saw was the ground rushing to meet him as he fell off the stage before he woke up.

"What was that all about?" Ash panted.

"You had a nightmare too?" May asked as she pulled herself up.

"You could call it that." Ash said as he patted his chest, before sighing to himself.

"It was weird." May said as she pulled herself over Ash and grabbed a glass.

"What was?" Ash asked as he swung his legs over the edge of the bed.

"It was like one of those Freaky Friday things. I was reliving the events after the Kanto Grand Festival as you." May said as she raised the glass to her mouth and took a drink.

"You too?" Ash asked as he dragged his bag closer.

"So you had the Drew thing too?" May asked as she ran the glass under the tap to get another drink.

"Yeah." Ash tried to smile as he took a swig from his canteen. "I only woke up after he pushed me off the stage."

"Weird. I woke up after he pushed my dreamself off the stage and punched me in the face." May said as she wiped her mouth.

Ash was about to say something when the smell from earlier floated back in.

"Not this smell again." Ash groaned. "This is what caused the dreams."

May sniffed and held her nose. "What is it?"

"Bulbasaur extract and Beedrill honey." Ash said as he felt around under the bed. "Ah ha." He smiled triumphantly as he pulled an incense stick out from under the bed. "Supposedly if you are having trouble sleeping you can use it and it will help you sleep."

"Side effects?" May asked as Ash extinguished it.

"Lots. In some people it causes nightmares, couples usually. Other people have allergic reactions to the fumes. The list goes on." Ash listed as he checked the clock. "Well it's eight am. Let's go grab some breakfast."

May nodded as she stepped into the bathroom to get changed.

Ash pulled on his shirt before he slid the shorts off and replaced them with his jeans.

He placed his cap on his head before he went to work on his shoes.

After May was finished they roused their sleeping Electric types and headed down stairs.

"Well good morning you two." Nurse Joy smiled.

"Good morning Nurse Joy." The couple smiled back.

"Here's the room key." Ash said as he handed the key back to the Nurse.

"Ah. Wonderful." Nurse Joy said as she took the key and hung it on the wall behind her. "I hope your day goes well."

After a quick breakfast the two humans made their way out of town.

"Route two-zero-two." Ash's Pokénav buzzed. "Pokémon found on this route are: Shinx, Starly, Kricketot and Bidoof."

A small, red and black bug type ran out of the grass and fell over.

May took out her pokédex and scanned it.

"Kricketot, the cricket Pokémon. Kricketot are often spotted with Jigglypuff and Whismur as an instrument to their lullabies."

"So that's a Kricketot. Not very easy on the eyes are they?" May said.

The Kricketot tried to get back up but fell over again, its antennae connecting and making a gentle chime noise.

"So that's what Dextina meant when she said instrument." Ash laughed.

A small brown Pokémon wandered out of the bushes and started talking to Kricketot.

Ash took his pokédex and scanned the newcomer.

"Bidoof, the plump mouse Pokémon. Bidoofs front teeth are capable of gnawing through anything, as such many quarries use them as worker Pokémon."

"Those aren't too impressive either." Ash said.

"Pikachu." Pikachu sighed.

"Hey!" May called out. "I can see Jubilife city!" She yelled, pointing at the tip of a building visible through the canopy.

"Your first Sinnoh contest awaits." Ash said enthusiastically.

The couple took each other's hands and ran towards the city.

* * *

"Wow. It feels like ages since I've been in a city this big." May remarked. "Ohh. I can't wait to do a little shopping."

"This place puts Saffron to shame." Ash said as he took in the buildings and bright neon lights. "This even puts Goldenrod city to shame."

"I wonder what time it is though?" May asked as she reached for her Pokénav.

"It's one thirty pm young lady." A voice came from behind them. "Why waste time with your Pokénav when you can have the Pokémon watch, or Pokétch for short, tell the time for you whenever you need it."

"Pichu pichu? Pichu!" Pichu panicked as she jumped into May's arms.

"What's wrong Pichu?" May asked as she cradled the baby Pokémon in her arms.

Ash turned to see what had started the electric type. He put on a bored face as he turned back to May. "Clown. Selling watches. Right behind us. Keep walking." He said as he put his arm behind her and pushed her along.

"Okay. You don't have to tell me twice." May chuckled.

"Aww come on, every trainer needs a Pokétch!" The clown said as he jogged in front of them. "They have everything you need! From a watch function to a map ap. Even a built in phone. Pokémon navigators can't do all that!"

"These newer models can." Ash told the clown. "Get lost."

"Pichu pi!" Pichu shouted as she turned and buried her head in May's chest.

"You're scaring my Pichu." May said. "Please go away."

"Pika! Pikachu pika!" Pikachu growled as sparks danced from his cheeks, shorting out the Pokétchs the clown was carrying.

"Aww." The clown said as he hung his head and walked off.

"Damn clowns creep me out." Ash sighed.

"Pichu's not the only one afraid I see." May chuckled.

"I'm not scared of them, they just give me the creeps." Ash defended himself. "He said it was one thirty right? The contest starts in an hour and a half." He pointed out, shifting the focus off of him.

"Ah." May gasped. "You're right. Come one we have to find the contest hall."

"Not too difficult." Ash laughed as he pointed ahead.

A domed building sat in the center of the city, a sign on the front had a picture of a white ribbon with the words "Pokémon Contest." Printed on it.

May grabbed Ash's hand and lead him towards the building.

Once inside May ran up to the receptionist. "Hi. Is it too late to register for the contest league?"

"Nope. In fact you're here right before the deadline. Hand me your pokédex."

May did as she was told and watched as the lady plugged her pokédex into a device similar to the Rowan plugged into Ash's.

A card was printed out with a reversed design. Her mugshot was to the right and her team was to the left.

"Here you go." The receptionist handed May her pokédex and card. "And here's a ribbon case for you."

"Wow thank you." May said as she opened the ribbon case. "Wait why are there six slots for ribbons?"

"We host one hundred and fifty contests throughout Sinnoh over the year. One hundred and fifty one if you count the Wallace cup. So coordinators have to earn six ribbons instead of five to enter the Grand Festival." The receptionist explained before she turned to Ash. "Will you be filling in the last spot in this contest?"

"No Ma'am." Ash laughed. "I've been a trainer too long to become a coordinator."

"Ahh. Then you'll need this." The woman said as she pulled a badge case from her desk.

"Thanks." Ash said as he took the badge case and slipped it into his pocket.

"Crap crap crap!" Came a familiar voice as a girl ran up to the counter. "Am I to late to register?"

"Nope. The receptionist smiled. "Just in time."

"Whew." The girl breathed a sigh of relief as she handed over her pokédex. She looked up at May and flew into a rage. "You again? Why are you everywhere I go?"

"Who me?" May asked as she pointed at herself. "I'm just here to register for the contest league."

Ash walked over and placed his hands on May's shoulders. "Come on May. Let's let Pichu get some rest from the noise." Before he leaned over and kissed her cheek.

"Good idea Ash." May said as she walked over to the ready room with Ash.

"Here's you contest pass and Ribbon case." The receptionist smiled as she handed them to the girl. "Looks like you have a rival in that young girl."

A boy in a red beret and jacket with a white undershirt and form fitting jeans ran up to the girl. "Did you register Dawn?"

Dawn sighed. "Yeah I did Lucas. Where's Paul?"

"Paul said he's going to travel solo." Lucas said. "He headed straight for the east exit of town and the mount Coronet tunnel."

"I hope his Chimchar will be okay." Dawn said.

* * *

"So who are you going to use May?" Ash asked as he waited for her to get changed. "I think Pichu is a bit too young to be entering contests."

"I'll wait until she evolves before I enter her in contests. Maybe Skitty and Beautifly for appeals and then Blaziken and Eevee for battling." May deliberated.

"Sounds like a good idea." Ash agreed as he held onto Pichu. "I'm goin to take my place in the stands. I've got Pichu with me so don't worry."

"Okay sweetie." May said as she stepped out of the changing room.

"We'll be cheering for you!" Ash called out as he walked down the hallway.

Ash found his way into the crowd and took a seat next to a boy wearing a red beret.

"We meet again." Lucas smiled.

"Oh you're that kid from yesterday. Lucas right?" Ash asked.

"Yep. Look I want to apologize for Dawn earlier. She has quite a temper on her." Lucas said.

Ash laughed. "That's okay. If anything it should be a good battle when May and her meet in battle."

Lucas laughed with him. "Yeah. Speaking of which are you really Ash Ketchum?"

"Yeah that's me why?" Ash asked.

Lucas nodded. "Then that girl you're with is May. Dawn's got a tough road ahead of her with May around."

Ash was about to say something when the lights dimmed.

"Ladies and Gentlemen. Welcome to the first contest in Sinnoh this year. I'm your MC and announcer all year round, Marian Meridan! Our judges for today are Mister Contesta, Mister Sukizo and as usual Jubilife cities very own Nurse Joy!" A woman dressed in a crimson dress ran out on stage and whipped it off revealing a sporty, blue tube top and short pants. "Our first stage is the appeals and I'm told we have a very special coordinator in our ranks today. So let's not keep her waiting, all the way from Hoenn, please welcome a two time Grad Festival entrant! May!"

The crowd erupted as a cold wind blew in from the contestants entrance as May walked onto the stage. Skitty perched on her shoulder as Beautifly flew up from behind and landed on her head.

"Beautifly use string shot!" May ordered.

"Beau." Beautifly chirped as he fired a long, white string from his proboscis.

"Skitty freeze it with blizzard, then run along it!"

"Nya." Skitty meowed as she shot an icy wind out of her mouth, freezing the string shot in the air before leaping off May's shoulder and running across the frozen string.

May reached up and grabbed the unfrozen tip of the string shot and whipped it into the air.

"Shear it in two with Silver wind Beautifly!"

Beautifly took off and flapped his wings, launching a blade of silver energy right down the middle of the string, rapidly catching up to the pink kitten!

"Skitty look out!" May yelled.

The kitten Pokémon turned and saw the blade rapidly catching up and pumped her legs harder, jumping off the end of the string right in front of the silver energy. Twisting in midair, Skitty landed on Beautifly's back.

"Now Beautifly! Your signature appeal!" May called out. "Skitty use assist to help out."

"Beuatifly." The butterfly chirped as he began to spin in midair while launching out silver wind mixed with gust, creating a shimmering tornado. The two halves of the frozen string shot became sucked up by the vortex and shattered into an extra layer of sparkles.

"Nya!" Skitty mewed as her left front paw glowed white before she fired silver blades of energy from her paw. The extra silver wind created an opaque sheath around the two Pokémon.

"Now finish it of guys!" May ordered

Beautifly slowed to a halt before launching one more gust into the vortex, ripping the sheath into tiny particles which created a pure white mist.

"What a simply wonderful display. The mist is brilliant." Mr Contesta praised. "May shines through again."

"Indeed. A relatively simple appeal that works wonder." Mr Suziko agreed.

"Beatifly and Skitty are a great combination." Nurse Joy smiled. "They are both extremely well looked after."

"Now judges show us what you think Hoenn's princess deserves!" Marian announced.

Contesta's score screen lit up ten point zero.

Suziko mimicked Contesta with a score of ten point zero

Nurse Joy followed suite, also penning in a ten point zero.

On the big screen behind them Thirty point zero appeared in big yellow numbers.

"A perfect score. May instantly advances to the battle round!" Marian yelled.

"All right! Nice job May!" Ash called out.

"Pika Pikaka!" Pikachu cheered.

"Pichu Pichu!" Pichu cheered for her trainer.

May walked back into the ready room as the next trainer was called out. "Thanks you two, you were great." May praised her Pokémon. "Return." She said as red beams shot out of her pokéballs and converted the Pokémon into energy, dragging them back into the balls.

Dawn sat in the back, her pink and black dress replaced by a more formal pink one, her pink boots were gone too, replaced by a pair of matching heels. Ribbons adorned her hair where her white skullcap with pink pokéball design was. Her Piplup and Buneary sitting at the ready. When the intercom buzzed her name she stood up and walked out onto the stage.

"Our next contestant comes from Twinleaf town and is determined to live up to her mother's legacy as a great coordinator. Please welcome Dawn!" Miriam announced.

Dawn stepped out onto the stage with Piplup and Buneary trailing behind her.

Ash took out his pokédex and scanned Piplup.

"Piplup, the penguin Pokémon. Piplup are very proud and take a while to warm up to new trainers."

Ash hit the rescan button and moved the scanner over Buneary.

"Buneary, the rabbit Pokémon. Buneary's ears are a powerful defensive option, a full strength wallop from a curled up ear is strong enough to make a grown man cry."

"Piplup use bubble beam, Buneary freeze them with ice beam then catch them." Dawn ordered her Pokémon.

"Piplup. Piiip." Piplup chirped as a steady stream of bubbles shot out of his beak.

"Buneary. Bun." Buneary cried as a cyan beam shot out of her mouth, freezing the bubbles. "Bun." She said as she ran around catching the frozen bubbles.

"Now launch them with Dizzy punch!"

"Bun bun bun bun!" Buneary grunted as she slapped each ice ball into the air with her ears.

"Break them with peck Piplup!"

"Piplup." The penguin nodded as he jumped onto Buneary's ear.

"Bun." The rabbit nodded as she launched Piplup through the air, letting Piplup break the frozen bubbles with his beak.

"A brilliant display of teamwork but how will our judges see it?" Marian asked, building suspense.

Contesta penned in a seven point three. "With more moves they could be real star studded pair. The only thing letting them down is their move set."

Suziko nodded, penning in a six point nine. "Agreed. I see real potential in this young coordinator."

Nurse Joy smiled, penning in eight point two. "For their first contest they know how to appeal, but it's the battle that decides everything."

The big screen displayed a big twenty two point four.

"Will that be enough to take Dawn to the battle round. Let's find out." Marian said as she turned to the screen.

Pictures of every coordinator in the contest appeared and disappeared randomly, only May's picture stayed on screen. When the screen finally stopped there were eight pictures left. The pictures then split to reveal the battle round matchups.

"Our eight coordinators are: May, Zoey, Kenny, Thompson, Jimmy, Dawn, Jesse and Steve. And the battle round match ups are: May versus Jesse. ,Dawn versus Steve, Zoey versus Kenny and Thompson versus Jimmy."


	4. Hoenn ingenuity:The battle electric!

"The first battle is between May and Jesse!" Marian announced "Will both coordinators please step out onto the stage."

Having taken the top score in the appeals May stood on the right hand side of the field. Her opponent was a boy around her age, maybe a little older, with long black hair, wearing a black suit and trousers with a purple rose pined over the left breast.

"Show us how you rock! Infernape and Alakazam!" He called out as he threw two pokéballs into the air.

"Ape." A primate like Pokémon yelled as it landed on it's hands, pushing into a flip onto it's feet.

"Alakazam!" The Kanto native growled as it levitated itself down to the arena.

"Infernape?" Ash asked as he pulled out his pokédex.

"Infernape, the flame Pokémon. Infernape is the final evolved from of chimchar, it is extremely fast and powerful. Blaziken and Infernape are natural enemies and will stop at nothing to tear each other apart."

Ash groaned. "This could be bad."

"Blaziken! Eevee! Take the stage!" May yelled as she released her two Pokémon.

"Ken!" Blaziken said as he exhaled a deep breath before readjusting his stance.

"Vee!" Eevee cried excitedly as she bounced off her tail.

Marian drew attention to the screen, which had switched to show the mugshots of the two coordinators as well as a circular meter filled in with yellow.

"Can we have five minutes on the timer please?" Marian asked.

The blank box in between the yellow meters displayed five minutes.

"Coordinators! Begin!"

Jesse took the offensive. "Infernape use flare blitz, then follow up with close combat on Eevee! Alakazam use Miracle eye then psybeam on Blaziken!"

"Blaziken use Megakick on the ground." May ordered.

"Blaz." The fire/fighting type nodded. He raised his right foot and slammed into the ground, sending up a wall of dust.

"Eevee use dig! Blaziken follow her!"

"Eevee." The normal type acknowledged as she began to paw her way through the dirt. Blaziken crawled in behind her, keeping megakick active.

Infernape charged through the dust and looked around for his opponents. Alakazam's psybeam shot through and hit his teammate in the back.

"A team hit. That's gonna cost Jesse alot points."

Jesse's points dropped by twenty five percent.

"Ape. Infer. Infernape!" The angry primate yelled at his teammate.

"Settle down you two. Infernape follow them! Alakazam, project Reflect over Infernape." Jesse ordered.

Infernape nodded and darted down the hole.

"Now Eevee! Shadowball! Two of them!" May yelled.

Eevee and Blaziken burst up underneath Alakazam as Eevee fired a shadowball into Alakazam point blank.

"A brilliant tactical decision by May there. Alakazam doesn't look like he can take another hit" Marian narrated.

Jesse's points dropped by a third.

Flipping back through the air from recoil Eevee charged and fired another shadowball.

"Blaziken use Blaze kick to push Shadowball into Alakazam!" May yelled.

Blaziken backflipped over the second shadowball and kicked it with his flaming foot, lighting the ghost type attack on fire before it struck Alakazam who was still reeling from the first hit.

"Alaka zam." The psychic type groaned before he collapsed.

"Time!" Marian called out.

Both coordinators looked at the timer. It read all zero's.

May looked at her point meter. It hadn't taken a single hit, Jesse on the other hand had only a quarter of his original points left.

"May wins! The rose of Petalburg takes another victory! But this contest isn't over yet! Will Dawn and Steve take the arena next?" Marian asked.

Jesse recalled his Pokémon and walked out. "You guys did great. But maybe we should stick to the leagues."

May recalled her Pokémon and headed back to the ready room.

Dawn stepped out on the arena as the dirt lowered and slid away. Another dirt field slid into view and raised up.

Dawn's opponent was a little older than her, he had short black hair, dressed in a blue and gold trenchcoat with an eyepatch over his left eye. A purple undersuit with baggy white trousers and long black boots.

May and Jesse's mugshots faded as Dawn and Steve's appeared on screen. The points meters reset with the timer.

"Piplup! Buneary! Spotlight!" Dawn called out as her only two Pokémon appeared on the arena.

"Yeah! Let's do this!" Steve yelled as he threw a pair of pokéballs into the air.

Two small turtles appeared on the arena.

"Squirtle!" They both chanted as they high fived.

"Begin!" Marian announced.

"Ladies first." Steve offered.

"Piplup use Peck! Buneary use dizzy punch! Try and hit the same Squirtle." Dawn ordered.

"Piplup pip." The penguin Pokémon smiled as he charged forward, his beak glowing a bright white.

"Buneary!" The Rabbit Pokémon yelled as she charged forward, her ears glowing a multitude of different colors.

"Squirtle use ice beam!" Steve ordered. "Either one it doesn't matter."

The two Squirtle looked at each other and nodded. They jumped back and let Dawns Pokémon charge past before they jumped past each other and linked their tails together, momentum sending them into a clockwise spin. They both fired their ice beams and froze Dawns Pokémon solid.

"Now a simultaneous skull bash!"

The Squirtle duo paved some ice walls before they unlinked their tails and bounced off the walls, momentum creating white split lines around their heads as they smashed through the ice and knocked Piplup and Buneary out.

"Dawns Pokémon are unable to battle. Steve wins!" Marian announced.

Dawn looked on in shock as she recalled her Pokémon. "We didn't even last a minute." Dawn hung her head and walked out.

"Oh crap." Lucas said. "Not good. It was nice meeting you Ash but I've gotta go help Dawn."

"No problem. Nice meeting you too Lucas." Ash smiled as he watched Lucas run after Dawn.

May sat in the ready room with Blaziken and Eevee. "You two were great! Here have some Pokéblock." She smiled as she flicked open her Pokéblock case and launched a Pokéblock into their mouths.

"You still use Pokéblock?" One of the other coordinators asked.

"Yeah. Is that a problem?" May asked.

"Kenny chill out. And get ready our battle is next." Another coordinator beckoned the other over.

Ash stepped into the room. "May that was an amazing battle."

"Thanks Ash." May smiled as Pichu jumped out Ash's arms and ran up to her trainer.

"Pichu pichu!" Pichu nodded as she jumped into May's arms.

Blaziken shot a glance at Pikachu.

Pikachu shook his head and sighed. Introductions weren't going to be fun.

May pulled out her pokénav and opened the happiness checker. "Already one quarter full. You'll be a Pikachu in no time. Speaking of which. Ash you are the electric type expert. Be a dear and tell your girlfriend if Pichu have any special needs."

"Electric types have a lot of needs that other Pokémon don't. Because their attacks are energy based they need a lot of practice to master control." Ash began. "They also build up electricity over time. In a Pokémon like Pikachu or Electrike which are evolved or have a natural way to discharge discreetly this isn't a problem. But for a baby like Pichu to much electricity could be fatal as it could cause disruptions in the brains electronic flow."

"Wow. That's not good." May stated the obvious.

Ash held up a glass tube. "Here Pichu shock this."

Pichu nodded and launched thunder into the tube.

"Glass holds and disperses electricity fairly quickly so it makes an ideal conductor."

"Attention coordinators. Due to a tie the finals will proceed immediately. Will May and Steve please report to the arena." The intercom buzzed.

"Steve uses water types so you might want to give Pichu her debut today." Ash advised. "Pikachu go with her."

"Pikachu!" The electric type nodded as he jumped to May's shoulder.

Pichu climbed up to the other shoulder.

Ash gave May a small kiss on the cheek before he headed back to the audience.

May stepped onto the arena floor and took her position on the right hand side.

Steve was waiting on the left. "A good battle this should be."

The screen lit up. Above the timer was a picture of a white ribbon.

"Blastoise! Let's show them how we play on the squad!" Steve called out as he released the pair of giant turtles from their pokéballs.

"Toise." They growled as they flexed their arms and readied their cannons.

"You two ready?" May asked Pichu and Pikachu. "Then take the stage! Pikachu and Pichu!"

Pikachu simply jumped down and sparked his cheeks, ready to take on the giant water types.

Pichu landed on Pikachus back and sparked her whole body. Eager to prove herself.

"Begin!" Marian shouted.

"Ladies first." Steve offered again.

"Big mistake." May smiled. "Both of you use thunder! Merge them together above the center of the arena!"

Pichu jumped to Pikachu's side and launched thunder directing it into the path of Pikachus.

The two thunders clashed and created and orb of electricity, which launched two bolts that paralyzed Blastoise.

"Pikachu keep pouring electricity into the orb, Pichu use volt tackle!" May ordered.

Pichu broke off her thunder and charged towards the giant turtles, a yellow glow enveloping her body.

The orb latched onto the electricity from volt tackle and lifted it into the air, swinging Pichu around like a comet.

"Pikachu stop."

Pikachu did as he was told and ceased the flow of electricity, panting, he sank to one knee.

The orb began to shrink as it absorbed itself into Pichu's volt tackle, launching her on an arc that hit both Blastoise, knocking them out.

Pichu skidded to a halt next to Pikachu, panting, but already on all fours.

"Blastoise are unable to battle. May wins!" Marian announced. "The winner of the Jubilife city contest is May from Petalburg city."

Steve recalled his Pokémon and congratulated them on a job well done. He tossed May a smile and walked out as Mr Contesta presented May with her Ribbon.

Outside, Pikachu had retaken his position on Ash's shoulder.

"You did great buddy!" Ash congratulated his electric type. "and May. That was really clever. Pichu is in good hands with you." Ash smiled before he kissed her lips.

"Getting a bit bolder Ash?" May asked after he pulled back.

"A big win deserves a big reward." Ash smiled.

May took Ash's hand in her own. "Well then I'll have to remember that for when you win a badge."


	5. It's only temporary

After the contest it was relatively late so Ash and May decided to stay the night at Jubilife's Pokémon center.

As soon as they walked in they found Dawn was arguing with the Chansey that Nurse Joy had left in charge while Lucas sat defeated in the corner. Chansey spotted Ash and May walk in and quickly grabbed one of the room keys off the hook and ran over to them.

"Thanks Chansey." Ash said as he took the key. "Nurse Joy did a really good job training you."

Chansey bowed at the praise and ran back to the desk.

"You booked ahead?" May asked as she headed upstairs.

Ash followed her while squinting to see which room they were in. "From the pokénav. I requested no incense as well."

"Good." May sighed. "I don't want another nightmare."

"That makes both of us." Ash groaned.

Like the ritual it would become May dashed to the bathroom to take a shower while Ash flipped the TV on.

"Let's see. News news news." Ash repeated as he searched for the news channel. When he found it he went straight to Hoenn's news again.

"…man refused to comment on his daughters whereabouts. Still in news about the Petalburg gym leaders family is his son Max, who defeated the Rustboro gym leader with relative ease. His Pokémon count has increased from two to four as he caught a Ralts and a Poochyena." The news anchor said as one of the stage hands rushed over to tell her something. "We have breaking news. May, the daughter of Petalburg gym leader, Norman, has been located. This video footage from Sinnoh shows the young coordinator winning a contest in Jubilife city."

The screen cut to official video footage of the last battle, where May used Ash's Pikachu and her Pichu to help her attain victory.

Almost immediately May's pokédex began to ring. Ash gulped and fished it out of her pack.

Hitting accept he braced himself. "H-hello. May isn't able to answer at the moment."

"Ash!" Norman roared. "When May is able tell her to call me back. Or better yet. Explain why she is with you in Sinnoh!"

Ash thought quickly and remembered the old voicemail system on his pokédex. "Please leave a name and number and she may get back to you." He recited before he hung up. "Phew. Boy are we going to be in trouble when we get home."

"Why's that Ash?" May asked. "Why are you holding my pokédex?"

Ash jumped at the sound of her voice. "Don't do that!" He yelled. "The news got a video of you winning the contest here, and needless to say your dad isn't happy. I just saved you from having to explain yourself."

May hugged Ash. "Thank you. I don't like dealing with dad when he's angry."

"Pikachu." Pikachu grumbled as he and pichu stared at the couple with their eyes half closed. "Pikapi. Pikaka. Pika pik Pikachu."

"Pichu." Pichu nodded.

Pikachu then curled up and let Pichu lie in the small gap between his paws before closing off the area with his tail.

"They're tired." Ash laughed softly.

May yawned and nodded. "So am I."

Ash pecked her cheek and handed her the remote. "I'm going to call professor Oak after my shower. With any luck we should have another region to visit after this one."

May nodded absentmindedly before she turned the TV off and slipped under the covers. She hadn't even closed her eyes when her pokédex rang again.

She picked it up and glanced at the caller ID.

"Pokédex to Pokédex call from Max." the computerized voice chirped.

"Max. Good." She rubbed her eyes and hit the accept button.

"May. Dad's gonna be so mad when he finds out…"

May cut him off. "Can it Max. Dad already knows. Any other reason you called?"

"Yeah. When did you get a pichu? Is Ash's Pikachu the father?" Max asked.

"I caught it when we arrived here and no it's not from Ash's Pikachu. We done. I want to get some sleep." May snorted.

"Alright. Goodnight May."

"Goodnight Max." May said as she hit the disconnect button and collapsed back into bed.

Ash crept out and headed downstairs.

"Ash my boy!" Professor Oak smiled. "Good to hear from you."

"Hey Professor. Sorry to wake you but is there another region opening its borders anytime soon?" Ash asked.

"Not to my knowledge no. Why?"

Ash sighed. "I trust you've seen the news."

"Yes. May pulled off quite a win today. I'm still curious as to where she got the… oh no Ash she's with you isn't she?" Oak asked as the realization set in.

"Yup. Therein lies my problem. Norman is not happy." Ash said through gritted teeth.

"Well Ash I'll see what I can do. Just lay low until then." Oak sighed as he cut the connection.

Ash sighed and headed back up stairs before he climbed into bed. "Not good." He sighed again before he drifted to sleep.

His mind drifted back to when he first met Brandon.

_He was in the chamber with the stone pokéball. Seeing no way out of the chamber he picked it up, the door behind him rumbled open as the pressure switch was released._

_The Stone pokéball began to glow as it released the spirit of the king of Pokélantis._

"_Ash no!" Someone screamed._

_He turned to look but was shoved out of the way as the spirit dove for his body. When he opened his eyes he saw May collapsed on the floor._

"_May! Come on wake up! Don't let that thing control you!" Ash yelled as he ran over and picked her up._

_May groaned as she tried to fight off the influence of the king. "Ash." She said with a pained expression. "I love you."_

_Ash started crying. "I love you too May. Please. Hang on until Brandon gets here."_

"_I don't think I can Ash. The king. He's dragging me into his realm to be his queen." May cried, her eyes finally opened, her pupils shifting between the usual sapphire blue and ruby red. "Goodbye Ash." She said as her body faded from existence._

"_No! No! No! No!" Ash yelled as he punched the floor. Realizing he still held the stone pokéball he threw it at the wall and watched it shatter. "This is all my fault! If I wasn't such an idiot!"_

Ash sat up with a start.

Pikachu walked over to his trainer and poked his arm. "Pikapi. Pi-ka-chu?"

Ash took a deep breath and pet his electric type in between his ears. "It's nothing buddy. I'm fine." He lied as he climbed out of bed. "Come on. Let's go grab something to eat."

"Pika!" The electric type nodded.

After Ash got dressed and Pikachu hopped up to his shoulder, the two of them headed downstairs to get some breakfast.

In the cafeteria May and Pichu waved them over.

Ash walked over and kissed Mays forehead before he went over to get something to eat. Pikachu hopped onto the table and tucked into his can of Pokémon food.

"So Pikachu was Ash alright when he woke up? He was tossing and turning a lot." May asked as she shoveled another spoonful of cereal into her mouth.

"Pikapi? Pi pik pika Pikachu pi Pikachu. Pipikachu pika pika." Pikachu voiced his thoughts.

"Pichu. Pichuchu. Pichu pi pichu. Pichupi chu Pichuchu." Pichu told her evolved form.

"Pika? Pikaka pika Pikachu?" Pikachu asked.

"Pichu." Pichu nodded.

"Pika pika pipikachu." Pikachu said, motioning to the door.

The two electric types gathered their food and headed outside to talk in private.

"Oookay." May said in stunned disbelief.

"Hey where are Pikachu and Pichu going?" Ash asked as he took a seat next to May.

May shrugged. "To talk in private I guess."

Ash shrugged and took a bite of his sandwich. "We ready to head out today?"

"Can't we stay a little longer? I want to get some shopping done." May begged. She hugged Ash and pecked his cheek.

Ash laughed. "Alright. We make leave around noon then."

"Yay. Thank you Ash." May cheered.

Ash was about to say that he wasn't going to be carrying everything when his pokédex rang.

"Call from the Oak Ranch." Dextina chirped.

Ash pulled Dextina out of his pocket with his free hand and pressed the accept button. Professor Oak appeared on screen counting money.

"Two hundred and seventy five, three hundred. Oh hello Ash. It seems you are in luck. Starting next week, the Isshu region is sending a representative over to negotiate opening the borders to trainers and coordinators." Oak explained.

"That's great professor but where'd you get that money?" Ash asked.

"Ash you little bastard!" A voice yelled from the background.

Ash sighed. "You and mom betting again?"

"Yes my boy and you helped me score the trifecta. Two hundred and fifty on May being in Sinnoh. Five hundred on her travelling with you and seven hundred and fifty on you and her being a couple." Oak smiled. "Don't ask how I know, I just do."

"Ash. Mommy is going to ground you when you get home." Delia chirped in.

"She's still a sore loser." Ash sighed.

"Well I won't keep you Ash." Oak said before he cut the connection.

"Really?" May asked.

"Really." Ash sighed.

"And I thought mom and dad had some weird habits." May said.

"They got nothing on people from Pallet town." Ash sighed again.

The couple finished their breakfast, headed outside and collected their Pokémon before heading into town.

"I don't think this place has a lot of places for shopping." Ash noted.

May nodded. "I know. I just need some supplies to make Pokéblock and some more Pokémon food. The real shopping fun is in Veilstone city." May smiled.

Ash pulled out his pokénav and checked Veilstone city with the map function. "Hey Veilstone city has a gym. And a Contest."

"So it has something for both of us." May beamed.

"Alright. But we have to get there first." Ash pointed out. "It's easily a couple of weeks away."

"Pikapi." Pikachu whispered.

"Huh? What is it Pikachu?" Ash asked.

"Pichuchu." Pichu tugged at May's hair.

"Ow. What do you want Pichu?" May asked.

"Pikaka pik pi pika. Pika pikapi Pikachu pik Pikachu pika Pikaka. Pikaka pik Pikachu pika pik pikapi pik pika." Pikachu whispered to Ash.

"Pichupi pi pichu. Pichupi pi pichu chu pichu. Pichuchu pi pichupi pichu chu pi chu pichu. Pichuchu pichu chu pi." Pichu whispered to May.

"What?" The two of them asked their Pokémon. "Is this true?" They asked each other. "I don't know what you're talking about. Stop copying me!"

The couple glared at each other before Pikachu smacked Ash in the back of the head with an Iron tail.

"Ow. We'll discuss this later then." Ash said as he shot a glare at his starter.

"I guess…" May added, a little shocked at what Pikachu just did.

Inside the Pokémart May stocked up on berries and food for their Pokémon while Ash bought potions and herbs to heal their Pokémon after battles.

Ash checked his pokénav and called out to May. "It's eleven o'clock! Let's grab some lunch before we leave town."

"Okay. Let me just finish buying these." May called back.

Ash leant against the wall and waited. Pikachu and Pichu were running around the store playing tag.

A few minutes later May walked over and woke Ash up.

"Enjoying your nap?" May laughed.

"I was." Ash groaned. "Pikachu come on!"

May bent down and called out to Pichu. "Come here Pichu! We're leaving to get some food."

Pikachu ran down the aisle and vaulted on top of shelf before long jumping onto Ash's shoulder.

Pichu looked at the shelf and weighed her options… and decided to do things the safer way. She ran and jumped straight into May's arms.

May laughed. "Looks like she's smart enough to not try anything Pikachu does."

"Or she would rather by healthy than in pain." Ash suggested. "Come on I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry Ash." May noted.

Ash scratched Pichu's ears. "And you're not?"

May's stomach grumbled as soon as Ash finished talking. "I guess I am a little hungry." She admitted sheepishly.

"I wish I had of thought to ask Brock for a little cooking advice." Ash thought aloud as they left the store.

May laughed. "Ash Ketchum? Cooking? I'd pay to see that."

"So would I." A voice behind them said.

"That couldn't be." Ash said.

"There goes our alone time." May groaned.

"Pikpi." Pikachu cried happily.

"Pichu?" Pichu asked.

"So how have the love birds been without big bro Brock?" The former gym leader asked.

"Brock I thought you were staying in Kanto." Ash whined.

"Relax Ash. I'm just here to help a new gym leader do some training. I'm heading to Orreburgh city and figured you'd be heading the same way." Brock assured Ash. "So what do you say we head there together. For old times sake."

"You'll be staying in Orreburgh once we get there?" May asked.

Brock nodded. "I'll be here for a while too. Huh?" He stopped as he noticed Pichu. "Well isn't this little one new?" Brock shot a glance at Pikachu, who once again shook his head.

"My first catch here in the Sinnoh region." May proclaimed proudly.

"Hey Brock. You weren't followed were you?" Ash asked.

Brock shook his head. "No why?"

"Lots of problems back home." May sighed.

"Your dad?" Brock asked.

"Dad." May nodded.

"Oh well. You're safe here. Now what say we head on out and I'll whip up some stew for us all!" Brock announced.

"Yeah!" Ash and May cheered.


	6. Tough choices ahead

As the trio set up a campsite just outside the city limits, they began to cal out their Pokémon.

"Sceptile! Pidgeot! Charizard! Haunter! Corphish! Lunch time!" Ash called out.

"Blaziken, Skitty, Beautifly, Squirtle, Eevee! Time to eat!" May yelled.

"Marshstomp, Steelix and Ludicolo! Chow time!" Brock announced.

May and Ash set down the Pokémon food while Brock cooked up some stew.

"Alright everyone." May said as she sat down her Pokémon's food. "We have a new team member. Eevee and Blaziken have already met her. So Skitty, Beautifly and Squirtle, say hello to Pichu."

"Pichu!" Pichu announced as she waved.

"Nya nya nya?" Skitty asked Blaziken.

"Blaze." Blaziken shook his head.

Everyone sighed in relief.

Pikachu hit himself in the face with his paw. "Pikachu." He sighed.

"Alright guys, say hi to Pichu." Ash told his Pokémon as he handed Sceptile a can of food.

Sceptile opened one eye to Pikachu who flipped him the Pidgey. Sceptile shrugged and started eating.

Charizard poked Pikachu and made rude hand gestures. Pikachu smacked him with Iron tail.

Charizard huffed, knowing he deserved it and sat down to eat.

Corphish and Haunter were too busy arguing over who got more food to pay attention while Pidgeot just ate next to Sceptile.

"Alright. The Pokémon are being fed. Now it's our turn." Brock said as he pulled a folding table and three chairs out of his bag. "Let's eat!"

"Yeah!" Ash and May cheered.

After lunch everyone helped to do the washing up. Squirtle, Marshstomp and Corphish filled Ludicolo's leaf hat with water while Sceptile, Blaziken and Charizard loaded the plates in. Skitty used assist to heat the water with ember (being careful not to hit Ludicolo), as the humans, Pikachu and Pichu washed the dishes. Pidgeot, Haunter and Beautifly grabbed the clean dishes and stacked the next to Steelix, who was taking a nap.

"That was amazing Brock. Not even the food on the ship could compare to that." May smiled.

"Aww come on. I'm not that good of a cook." Brock said modestly.

"Yeah you are Brock. You could open a restaurant and it would be world renowned in a week." Ash laughed.

"You really think so? Well I'd need some staff." Brock said suggestively.

"We'd be happy to advertise but work?" May said sheepishly.

"It'd be good as a part time job if we needed some extra cash." Ash thought out loud.

"I guess…" May thought. The image of her in a waitress dress and Ash in a waiter's uniform crept into her mind. "As long as the uniforms are good I'd be fine with it."

Brock watched as Beautifly carried off the last bowl to the pile.

"These are ceramic right?" Ash asked.

"Yeah why?" Brock nodded.

"For a flash dry. Charizard!" Ash gave the thumbs up.

"Braaur." Charizard nodded before he blasted the bowls with a weak flamethrower.

Brock grabbed the top plate and ran his hand over it. "Dry as a bone. And it's not even hot. Thanks Charizard."

Charizard smiled as Ash recalled him. "Let's get moving!" Ash said as he checked his pokénav. "Orreburgh city is this way."

May nodded as she picked up Pichu after recalling her Pokémon.

"Good to see you have a sense of direction now Ash." Brock laughed.

* * *

Meanwhile, floating high above Kanto.

"Hey Jess where do ya tink da twoip went?" The cream colored cat asked.

"I don't know but he couldn't have left Kanto again." The crimson haired woman responded.

"Uh Jessie I think he has." A lavender haired man added from behind a magazine. "Look. This picture shows the female twerp winning a contest in Sinnoh. And look at the Pokémon she's using."

Jessie crawled over and peeked her head over the top of the magazine.

The cat Pokémon poked his head in from the side. "And look in da crowd. I see da twoip."

"Where exactly Meowth?" Jessie asked.

"You can see him right James?" Meowth asked.

"Now that you mention it yes. Right there Jessie." James pointed at the magazine for his friend.

"Next stop then. The Sinnoh region!" Jessie proclaimed.

* * *

Back in Sinnoh, the trio have reached a cave.

"Mt Coronet cave." Ash recited. "A throughway to Orreburgh city."

"I've heard of this place. Ash it might be a good idea to put Pikachu in his pokéball." Brock said.

"Why's that?" May asked.

"Mt Coronet cave is supposed to be the best place in the world to find Thunder stones." Brock stated. "In fact it is reportedly so bathed in thunder radiation that Eevee's evolve in Jolteons and Pikachu's evolve into Raichu's just by setting foot in there."

"Wow. We don't want that to happen do we buddy?" Ash asked the electric type on his shoulder.

"Pika." The lightning mouse shook his head.

"Then suck it up buddy. Return." Ash said as he pulled out Pikachu's pokéball and recalled him. "You might want to recall Pichu too May. Thunder stones build up enormous electrical energy in Pokémon that don't evolve from them."

"Is that true Brock?" May asked.

"Yeah. Pokémon that are the same element as a stone but don't evolve from it become more powerful when subjected to their radiation." Brock confirmed. "That's how Pikachu evolve. Thunderstones push them past their electrical limit which causes them to evolve to cope."

"Wow. Okay Pichu return." May gasped as she recalled her baby Pokémon.

As they walk through the cave, the ground collapses under Ash.

"Ash are you okay?" Brock called into the pit.

"Ash!" May yelled.

Ash picked himself up. "Yeah I'm fine!"

"Do you want me to lower a rope?" Brock asked.

Ash tested the rocks in the wall. "No I should be able to climb out." He called up as he started climbing.

"Did team Rocket finally find us?" May sighed.

Brock looked around. The walls of the hole were all lined with Thunderstones. "Nope. If this were team Rockets handiwork then there wouldn't be any Thunderstones here."

Ash placed his left hand on a pair of thunderstones growing out of the wall and pulled on them to test their strength. The rock holding them in place gave way. Ash watched as the rock plummeted to the floor, the thunderstones were still in his hand.

"Ash come on! You're almost there." May called out.

"Yeah. Okay." Ash called back up as he pocketed the thunderstones and kept climbing.

When he reached the top May and Brock had already circled around the edge to pull him up.

"You alright?" May asked as she hugged him.

"Yeah." Ash assured her before he kissed her hair.

"They grow up fast." Brock muttered.

"You say something?" Ash asked.

"Uh, dyugh." Brock stammered. "The exit is right over there."

"Alright." Ash said as he stood up.

"Let's get out of here before another cave in happens." May said.

Ash and May took the lead while Brock hung back. He watched as May held onto Ash's arm. "They are going to be just fine without me, they can handle anything." Brock muttered before he took another path out of the cave.

"Alright." Ash cheered as he rubbed his ass. "We're out. Damn my butt hurts."

May giggled as she let Pichu out. "It's probably bruised from the fall. Right Brock?"

When only silence greeted her she turned around. "Brock?"

"I think." Ash announced as Pikachu shook his head after being let out. "He ditched us."

May shrugged. "As hopeless as he is, he still got the hint. Besides we're here." She sang as she ran to the edge of the cliff face and panned her arms for dramatic effect.

"Alright!" Ash pumped his arm. "Orreburgh city gym here I come."

Ash and May took each others hand and walked down the mountain trail. Ash used his free hand to slip one of the Thunderstones into May's pack.

It was night fall by the time they reached the city so they headed to the Pokémon center where they once again ran into Lucas and Dawn.

"Excuse me miss." Nurse Joy said to Dawn as Ash and May walked in. "Are you two Ash and May?"

"Yes we are." Ash said as they walked to the counter.

"Here's your room key. Enjoy your stay." Nurse Joy said as Ash took the key from her.

"Again?" Dawn asked in disbelief.

"Booking ahead works blueberry." May snickered as they walked up stairs.

"Sorry Lucas." Ash called out.

"No problem." Lucas called back.

May went straight to the shower as usual while Ash pulled Pikachu aside.

"Hey buddy. I've been thinking." Ash said.

"Pika?" Pikachu asked.

Ash pulled the thunderstone out of his pocket and held it in front of his loyalist Pokémon. "The gym leaders here might be tougher than you can handle as a Pikachu. I'm not saying I would do it against your will, the decision is yours buddy. Just let me know and I'll do it."

"Pika! Pikapi. Pika Pikachu pika. Pi pika Pikachu?" Pikachu asked.

"I don't think you're weak buddy. You're my strongest Pokémon. But there's no shame in admitting you need help. If you do decide to take the plunge. Then I won't question it." Ash said as he put the stone in an isolated section of his pack. "While I'm thinking about it." Ash pulled the other stone out of May's pack and stuffed it in the same pocket as his. "Just in case."

After May came out Ashe went to have a shower.

May noticed Pikachu looking a little confused as she slid under the covers. "What's wrong Pikachu?"

Pikachu ran over to her and nuzzled her cheek. "Pikapi. Pikaka, pik pika Pikachu pika?"

May was taken by surprise at what Pikachu asked her. "I don't think you are weak Pikachu. Why?"

"Pikapi pika pik chu Pikachu. Pika Pikachu chu pika pi." The electric type explained.

"He doesn't think you are weak either." May assured him. "He's just letting you know that if you think you are weak and want to evolve then he won't stop you."

"Pika." Pikachu sighed. "Pika Pikaka."

May smiled. "You're welcome." She said as she pulled her pokénav out and scanned Pichu's happiness.

As soon as Pikachu perked up Pichu's happiness advanced to the halfway point. "Just like a younger sister." May laughed.

When Ash came out May put her pokénav back in her pack and placed it on the desk next to the bed and shuffled over.

Ash turned off the lights and slid into bed. May wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his chest before they both drifted off to sleep.


	7. Rematch and reward

Ash woke up early the following morning and carefully slid himself out from under May.

After he got dressed he pulled one of the thunderstones out of his bag and stared at it. As he put it back his mind turned to Pikachu, no doubt there was a slight trust issue now. "I told him it was his choice." Ash whispered. "But the thing about a choice like this is once it's made there is no turning back."

Pichu woke up and rushed over to greet him. "Pichu." She smiled.

Ash picked her up and scratched her ears. "Come on Pichu. Let's get something to eat while we wait for these two."

"Chu" The tiny mouse nodded.

Ash crept out of the room with Pichu on his shoulder and headed outside. "What kind of berries do you like Pichu?"

"Chu." The electric type said as she pointed to a big, red berry with points sticking out of it.

"Tamato berries? Like spicy stuff do you?" Ash laughed. "Like trainer like Pokémon."

Ash picked two berries off the berry tree. "This should be enough, these are big berries and you are a small Pokémon." Ash stowed them in his pocket and headed back into the city.

May woke up with a groan. "Aww. I want to sleep some more. Oh well. Morning everyone." She yawned as she rubbed her eyes. We she finally opened them she realized Ash and Pichu were gone and Pikachu was still asleep. May got out of bed and got dressed before she roused Pikachu.

"Pikapi. Pikachu." Pikachu groaned.

"It's not Ash Pikachu." May whispered into the electric types ear.

"Pikaka? Pika… Pikachu." He said before he pushed himself up and shook his head. "Pik. Pika Pikapi? Pika Pichu Pikachu?"

"I think they went to get something to eat. Shall we do the same?" May asked.

"Pika." He nodded before he jumped up to May's shoulder.

As they headed down stairs Ash and Pichu came in the front door.

"Ash! Pichu!" May called out as she noticed them.

"May and Pikachu." Ash said with a smile.

Ash waited in the lobby and when May got close enough Pikachu and Pichu switched shoulders.

Ash pulled a Tamato berry out of his pocket and handed them to May. "Pichu loves them. She ate a whole one on the way here."

May smiled at her baby Pokémon. "Like spicy stuff. Maybe I can pick some more later to make Pokéblock."

"Or turn it into a seasoning for her Pokémon food." Ash suggested.

"Ash that's a great idea." May gasped. "Did Brock give you some hints about flavor while we were cleaning up?"

Ash laughed. "No. Just speaking from experience. Mom loves using spices on food and would often try making the food hotter than it already was." He cringed. "Not fun for my tongue."

May laughed. "Got an intolerance to spices then?"

"You notice that now?" Ash asked. "Remember I ate that slice of Tamato berry back in Hoenn? Felt like my mouth was on fire."

"And then I ate a slice while you weren't looking." May said. "And it wasn't even hot to me."

"Can we stop talking about food and actually get some?" Ash said as his stomach voiced its agreement.

May's stomach agreed.

Pikachu was laughing when his stomach chimed in as well.

May grabbed some cereal from the self serve section of the cafeteria and waited for Ash to get his sandwich.

Pikachu was chowing down on some of the Pokémon food Brock had left them while Pichu rubbed her belly, still full from the Tamato berry.

While Ash was waiting in line Lucas spotted him and walked over.

"Hey Ash."

Ash turned and saw Lucas. "Hey Lucas. You going to challenge the gym here too?"

Lucas pulled out his badge case. "Already have." He said as he opened the case to reveal the badge. "The Coal badge. The gym leader there is really new so it was a little too easy."

"First gyms are usually easy." Ash shrugged. "So where are you headed after this?"

"Eterna city." Lucas consulted his watch. "Forest badge."

"Grass type Gym huh? Charizard should be handy there." Ash said.

"Hey Ash. Hope to see you in the Conference. I wanna be the one to knock you out." Lucas smiled as he offered his hand.

"Maybe you will, maybe you won't but I will be at the conference." Ash laughed as he shook Lucas' hand.

Lucas said his goodbye and walked out with Dawn.

Ash grabbed his sandwich and headed to where May was sitting. "Should we get going? I can eat on the way there."

"Sure." May smiled as she watched Dawn walk out. "You know that Dawn girl has a real short temper."

"What?" Ash asked.

May shook her head as she got up. "Nothing."

Ash pecked her cheek before they left.

The gym wasn't very far away and it wasn't long before it came into view.

The gym was hard to miss, with all the mining equipment coming out of it.

May grabbed Ash's hand as they walked in.

The battle field was surrounded by thick, dark rocks.

"I've been waiting for you Ash." Someone said.

"We've been waiting." Another voice corrected.

"Now I can prove that I'm stronger than you." The first voice said.

"Brock give it up." Ash sighed.

Brock stepped out of the shadows, followed by a young man with red hair in a grey outfit with a red mining helmet.

"You still owe me a rematch Ash." Brock smiled.

"So you're going to teach this poor guy to lose Brock?" Ash taunted.

"Just step onto the field." Brock sighed.

Ash stood where he was. "I came here to challenge the gym leader, not you Brock."

"The Coal badge is still up for grabs Ash." The man behind Brock said. "I'm Roark and my father, the Canalave city gym leader, sent for Brock to teach me about how to battle since I've only ever been a miner. So this is an official gym battle."

Ash stepped forward. "Alright then. I beat you before Brock. I can do it again."

Roark took up the judges position. "This will be a standard gym battle between Ash from Pallet town and Brock of Pewter city. Each trainer may use three Pokémon each, only Ash is allowed substitutions."

"Ready Ash?" Brock asked.

"I was born ready." Ash responded.

"Alright then! Golem let's go!" Brock called out as the rock type appeared from the pokéball.

"You ready Pikachu? Let's use Golem as a pinball." Ash said, confidence in his voice.

"Pika!" The electric type nodded as he jumped to the floor.

"I've seen how you battle Ash. You can't surprise me!" Brock called out.

"We'll see." Ash muttered.

"Golem use roll out!" Brock ordered.

"Lem." Golem growled as he tucked his arms, legs and head into his shell and started rolling at Pikachu

Pikachu hid his tail behind his back, glowing white.

"Now!" Ash called out.

Pikachu back flipped and launched Golem into the air with Iron tail before leaping up, into a front flip and slamming him back into the ground.

When the dust cleared Golem was unconscious.

"Golem is unable to battle. Round one goes to Ash and Pikachu." Roark announced.

"Golem return. Brock said as he recalled the rock type. "You fought a good battle."

"Pikachu return." Ash called out, Pikachu jumped back to Ash's shoulder.

"Impressive Ash. I admit I didn't expect that. But the match is still young." Brock said as he readied his next pokéball. "Crobat let's go!" Brock said as the purple, four winged bat appeared.

"Pikachu head over to May." Ash told his electric type.

"Pika." Pikachu nodded and ran over to where May had taken a seat.

Ash pulled one of his pokéballs from his belt. "Charizard let's go!"

"BRAAAAAAAAUR!" The dragon roared.

"Crobat use Poison fang!" Brock yelled out.

"Charizard. Deal." Ash said.

Charizard watched as the little bat tried to bite trough his hide and sent a puff of flame his way, knocking the bat Pokémon out.

"Crobat is unable to battle, round two goes to Ash and Charizard." Roark announced.

"Crobat return." Brock once again recalled his fallen Pokémon. "That was a cheap win Ash."

"So?" Ash asked as he returned Charizard. "I know the real show is about to begin."

"Damn right it is." Brock said. "Steelix let's rock!"

"Lix." Steelix grinned as he appeared.

"That's what I was waiting for." Ash smiled. "Sceptile! You're up!"

"Tile." The grass type said as he place his twig in his mouth. He glanced up at Steelix and pointed at him before turning to glance at Ash. "Sceptile?"

Ash nodded.

"Tile. Sceptile." The forest Pokémon said as he cracked his knuckles and neck.

"Let's make this quick Steelix! Iron Tail!" Brock commanded.

"Sceptile Leaf Blade!" Ash ordered.

Steelix brought his tail up and let it glow bright white. Sceptile flexed his arms and let the leaves on his elbows grow into long, green blades.

Steelix slammed his tail down on top of Sceptile, looking confident he had just won when he started to shift sideways.

The dust cleared and revealed Sceptile had blocked the Iron tail by crossing the blades above his head. He then wrapped his arms around Steelix' tail and hurled him sideways.

"Steelix use dig!" Brock ordered.

"Steee." The steel type groaned as he burrowed his way underground.

"Jump Sceptile!" Ash told his Pokémon.

Sceptile nodded and leapt into air as Steelix came up underneath him.

"Bite!" Brock yelled.

"Bullet seed!" Ash commanded.

Sceptile shot a bullet seed into Steelix' open mouth.

"Now use Absorb."

Sceptile landed on Steelix and placed his hands on the steel types head, pulling nutrients and minerals out of Steelix' body.

Steelix began to topple as Sceptile leapt off.

Sceptile landed on one of the rocks surrounding the arena as Steelix crashed to the ground.

"Steelix is unable to battle. Round three goes to Ash and Sceptile. The winner is Ash from Pallet town." Roark announced.

Brock returned Steelix. "Well. Looks like Ash is still the better trainer." Brock sighed before he started laughing. "Well that's what I get for slacking off on my training to become a breeder."

Roark ran over to Ash. "As the gym leader here in Orreburgh city I present to you this Coal badge." He said as he handed Ash the badge. "I hope when I get better you can come back and give me a match."

"Sure thing Roark." Ash nodded.

"Ash come on!" May called out to him from the door. "We have to head back through Jubilife city to reach Floaroma town and my next contest."

"Alright. Good match Brock." Ash said as he recalled Sceptile and ran to the door.

"Good luck Ash." Brock called out as he ran outside.

Ash and May left the city and headed back to the mountain cave. About half way there May tugged Ash into some bushes.

"Now Ash it's time for your reward." May said as she pressed her lips to his and forced his mouth open, sticking her tongue in his mouth for a few seconds before breaking the kiss. "The more badges you win, the longer it lasts."

Ash looked on stunned as she stepped back onto the path. "I might have to step up my reward." He said to Pikachu as he rushed to catch up with her.

May giggled when Ash finally caught up with her. "So how did you enjoy that?"

"Very much." Ash panted. "You know how fast you move when you are walking?"

May laughed even harder. "You sure I didn't just steal your breath away with that kiss. Anyway we're at the mouth of the cave."

Ash got his breath back and nodded. "You know what that means buddy."

Pikachu sighed and braced himself as he was recalled into his pokéball.

"You too Pichu." May said as she recalled her electric type while she tried to sneak off.

As they walked through the cave, and around the hole, May turned to Ash. "So Pikachu tells me you kept a thunderstone from here."

Ash cringed. "I have no intention of using it on him unless he wants me to."

May sighed. "That's not the point. The point is you made Pikachu feel insecure about his strength. He trusts you Ash. And though you didn't betray it outright, you hurt it. And that's worse."

Ash gritted his teeth. "I'll talk to him after we get out of here."

"That'd be a good idea." May said as she hugged Ash.


	8. Sinnoh style

The peaceful calm of a new day is shattered as a small section of the stone walls of Mt. Coronet comes crashing down.

"Well at least we made it out." Ash laughed nervously.

May wasn't impressed. "We wouldn't have been stuck in there all night if you hadn't of called out Charizard in the first place!" She roared.

"Well excuse me for trying to make the path brighter!" Ash roared back.

Charizard stepped out of the hole and found the two trainers yelling at each other. With a huff he shot a blast of flame between them, an ember flicking out of the flame and onto Ash's shirt.

"Hot hot hot hot!" He yelled as he dropped his pack, pulled his shirt off and threw it to the ground before stomping on it, catching his gloves on fire in the process.

May looked at the lizard and smiled. "Thank you Charizard."

Charizard huffed and sat with his back to the rock wall.

After Ash put his shirt out he picked it up and looked at it. A big hole was burnt right through the middle of it. "Thanks Charizard. Return."

Charizard looked proud of his handiwork as he was converted into energy and returned to his pokéball.

Ash fished around in his pack and pulled out his blue, hooded jacket. "At least it was just the shirt. I don't have a spare pair of pants." He sighed as he pulled the jacket on.

"I get the feeling he used to do that a lot." May said as she laughed at the thought of Ash walking through a city with no pants, or even better in one of her skirts.

Ash eyed his girlfriend as he looked around for his hat, which he had knocked off his head when he pulled his shirt off. "Right up until he nearly got killed by a Poliwrath and I saved his life. It's been a while since he blasted me." He recounted. "Aww man. My hat too?" He whined as he found a pile of ash. "At least he didn't hit you with that." Ash said as he stood up.

"Yeah that didn't look fun." May said. "Sorry about yelling."

"No no. It's fine." Ash sighed as he let Pikachu out. "It was my fault. Your Blaziken would have been a better choice." Ash said as he consulted his pokénav. "But look. We're closer to Floaroma town and we skipped Jubilife city."

"Awesome! So that little detour helped a lot then." May cheered as she let Pichu out.

Ash nodded as Pikachu jumped to his shoulder. "We cut out two days of travel."

May picked up Pichu and placed her on her shoulder. "Then Floaroma town here we come!" She said as she began marching in the direction indicated on Ash's pokénav.

"Hey uh May. The back of your bandana is on fire." Ash pointed out.

"Huh? Ahhh!" May screamed as she pulled it off her head. A piece of the burning cloth fell off and landed on her blouse, setting it alight. "Pichu on the ground now!"

Pichu jumped onto the ground and watched as her trainer pulled her blouse off and stomped on it to put the flames out, also catching her gloves on fire.

May picked it up and looked at it, while it hadn't been on fire long, the damage was done. "It's unwearable." May sighed. "And I don't have any spare clothes."

"I don't think that's a word May." Ash said as he motioned for Pikachu to get off. "Here." He said as he pulled his jacket off and handed it to her, being careful to avoid staring. "I've still got my under shirt. You're going to be cold if you don't have something on other than your bra."

"Thanks Ash." May said as she pulled the jacket on. "Oh it's nice and warm."

"First order of the day in Floaroma town, clothes shopping." Ash sighed.

"Looks that way don't it." May smiled.

The couple trudged along, hand in hand, scanning the new Pokémon with their pokédexs until they reached a small town.

"Floaroma town. Known for its voracious flower beds and wind farm energy source, Floaroma is one of the many towns in Sinnoh completely in tune with nature." May's pokénav chirped.

"So mine tells us about what Pokémon are where and yours gives information about the locales." Ash noted. "Different programs in each one."

"To prove that we'd be lost without one another." May smiled as she nuzzled up to Ash. "Now we just need to find a clothing store."

Ash scanned through the town with his pokénav. "Next to the flower shop."

The couple headed toward the center of the town where the flower shop was and spotted a small, modern looking building next to it.

"So much for designer clothes." May sighed.

"Practicality May, not looks." Ash reminded her as they went inside.

The store was longer than it was wide but still clearly divided into a male section and a female section.

Ash headed straight to the jackets and hats while May went to the blouse and fabrics.

"Now, this looks warm." Ash said as he picked up a cyan jacket with a blue collar. "I might want to get some new pants too, just so I have a spare pair. Also because I know I'm going to get wet at some stage and I don't want these jeans bunching up in the crotch like my last ones did."

May had sidetracked from the blouse and found a sleeveless white shirt with a black denim vest. "Now I need to match these with some shorts or something."

After a few minutes of searching Ash came out of the fitting room in the cyan jacket, with a pair of dark brown trousers and orange and black shoes. An orange and black cap with a pokéball design sat on his head. "This works." He said as he stepped back into the fitting room and changed out of them. He then carried them up to the counter to buy them.

May on the other hand stepped out in the shirt and vest, now joined by a pair of denim short shorts with white feather like flares on each side and two black wrist guards with a pink stripe replacing her destroyed gloves. A pair of black boots with pink soles and laces and a pink and white cap with a pokéball design completed the look. "Yeah. I like this." She giggled to herself. "The only problem is my pack doesn't match. Oh well I'll think of something." She stepped back in and changed out of the clothes and headed to the counter to buy them.

Ash finished his purchase as May came up to do hers. Pecking her cheek quickly before he headed back to the fitting rooms to get changed.

May finished her purchase and headed back to the fitting rooms to get changed as well, stowing the strap and pink dye she also bought in her pack.

"Nice." May remarked when she saw Ash's new outfit. "Form and function." She said as she handed Ash his jacket back.

"Going for the wild girl look there I see." Ash noted as he stowed the jacket in his pack. "I like it. But maybe do your hair differently. Let it out and thread it through the back opening of your hat."

"I was thinking of doing that." May said.

"Pokémon contest in Floaroma town begins in twenty four hours." Ash's pokénav chirped.

May checked the time on her pokénav. "It's five pm? We were in Mt. Coronet for about twenty two hours?"

"Relax May. We got out, and just in time for your contest." Ash pointed out.

"Yeah I guess." May shrugged. "Come on let's grab some food. I'm starving. Pichu! Come on we're leaving."

"Good idea." Ash nodded. "Pikachu! Come on buddy."

Pikachu and pichu charged down the center of the store, darting in a criss cross pattern between the clothing racks. They jumped towards each other and grabbed each others paws, spinning like helicopter blades before letting go and landing in front of their trainers.

"Pikapi?" Pikachu asked as he looked at Ash ins his new clothes.

"Like them buddy?" Ash asked as he picked up his electric type.

"Pika!" Pikachu nodded.

"What about you Pichu?" May asked as she lifted the baby Pokémon into the air.

"Pichu pichu." She nodded.

After stepping outside Ash checked his pokénav for the Pokémon centers location. "Due east."

As they entered the Pokémon center someone pushed past them.

"Sorry. Got an emergency." A smooth, deep voice said.

"Hey watch where you're goi… Scott?" Ash asked.

"Huh? Well if it isn't Ash and May sporting a new look. Something happen?" Scott asked.

"Charizard happened." May sighed. "Can we discuss this later? I'm hungry."

"Well let me join you. I needed to talk to you two anyway." Scott said.

"Alright. Hang on." Ash said as he walked up to Nurse Joy.

After booking their room for the night and getting his trainer card updated, Ash, May and Scott headed to the cafeteria.

"So what did you need to talk about?" May asked as she tucked into her ramen.

"Well no doubt you know your last contest made headlines back in Hoenn." Scott said between bites of his steak.

"Yeah. What about it?" May asked.

"Well. Your dad is on his way out here." Scott said.

"What?" May screamed.

"Say what?" Ash asked as he choked down his burger.

Pikachu just sighed while Pichu cocked her head inquisitively.

"Relax." Scott said as he made a downwards motion with his hands. "You got that new outfit and I presume you are going to change your hair. You're fine as long as he doesn't know you look like that."

"You're going to have to wear your hair like that for the contests though." Ash pointed out.

"I've still got my contest costume so as long as we stay ahead of him we should be fine." May sighed with relief.

"And Ash, Tracey is looking for you. He's waiting in Eterna city." Scott said.

"What does he want?" Ash asked as he took another bite of his burger.

"I don't know. He just told me to tell you he'll be waiting at Eterna city." Scott said as he finished his steak. "Well no doubt I'll bump into you two again sometime. Bye now." He said as he got up and walked out.

"Detour to the rescue again. We have a five day lead on your dad." Ash smiled.

"Detour to the rescue." May said as she circled her finger in the air half heartedly.

After they finished their meals they headed up to their room.

"You have your shower first Ash. And wash Pikachu. He's starting to smell." May said.

"Alright. Come on buddy." Ash said as he pulled Pikachu into the bathroom.

"Pika Pikachu. Pika pika!" Pikachu protested as he tried to hold onto the carpet and failed.

"I learnt one thing from team rocket." Ash smiled as he closed the door, rubber clothes line in hand.

May laughed and pulled the pink dye and strap out of her pack. She removed the normal fastener from her pack and threaded the strap through the metal square to create a small shoulder bag. "Step two. Remove everything from the pack." She said as she took everything out. "Now I wait. You need a shower too Pichu." May smiled as she pet her electric type.

"Pichu?" She asked.

"Yeah you do." May nodded.

"Pi." Pichu nodded.

Ash stepped out a few minutes later with Pikachu tied up with the rubber clothes line.

"Feel better buddy?" Ash asked the obviously grumpy electric type.

"Pika." Pikachu shot. "Pikapi pika pipikachu!"

"I'll untie you when you calm down." Ash scolded the lightning mouse.

"Come on Pichu." May said as she grabbed the dye and her empty pack.

Pichu nodded and followed May into the bathroom.

May filled the sink with water and placed her open pack into it before adding the dye. She got undressed and placed her clothes on the bench next to the counter top. She then stripped off her bra and panties and place them in the combination washer/dryer and set it to standard wash before she stepped into the shower cubicle after Pichu.

Pichu sat under the shower head and looked up at it. May turned the water on and watched as Pichu panicked as the water came from nowhere.

"Relax Pichu this is what a shower is." May said calmingly as she squirted some of the Shampoo onto a loofah and foamed it up. "Now relax. This will get all the dirt out of your fur." She said as she bent down and rubbed the loofah all over Pichu.

"Chuuu." Pichu cooed as all the dirt and rocks that were stuck in her fur were pulled out by the suds.

"Now stand under the water and let it all wash out." May told her.

"Pichu." She nodded.

After pichu was clean May opened the cubicle to let her out. And started washing herself.

When she was done she pulled her undergarments straight out of the washer/dryer and pulled them on before she pulled her yellow tank top over the top. She lifted her pack out of the dye. "Perfect." She mumbled before she moved it to the dryer. And left it for a few minutes.

"What took you so long?" Ash asked as he untied the now asleep Pikachu.

"Just some last minute touches." May answered as she repacked everything.

When she finished she slid into bed and waited for Ash to turn out the lights.

"Tomorrow is another chance to kick Dawn's ass." May whispered.

"If she shows up." Ash said.

"Yeah. Goodnight Ash." May said as she pecked his lips.

"Goodnight May." Ash said as May snuggled up to him.


	9. Evolving to the situation!

Ash woke up before the sun had even come out. He carefully squirmed out from under May and got dressed.

"Come on buddy." He whispered as he nudged Pikachu. "Let's grab an early breakfast."

"Pika? PikaPi pik Pikachu." Pikachu groaned groggily.

"I know buddy but we gotta let May get some sleep." Ash kept whispering.

"Pika." Pikachu sighed. He carefully unwrapped himself from Pichu and lowered her head to the bed gently before jumping up onto Ash's shoulder. "Pik. PikaPi. Pik Pikachu pika pik pika Pikachu."

Ash chuckled. "I know. We're going berry hunting."

Pikachu just sighed again.

Ash crept out of the Pokémon center and headed to the forest to pick some berries. "According to the pokénav, Sitrus berries grow around here in huge numbers."

"Pika!" Pikachu cheered as he imagined the sweet flavor of the berry.

It wasn't long before they stumbled onto a grove, but they weren't alone.

"What are you doing here? Picking berries for your girlfriend?" Dawn asked.

"Nope." Ash smiled. "We're here for breakfast."

"Huh?" Dawn said as she watched Ash pull some berries off the tree and hand them to Pikachu.

"Eat up buddy." He smiled as he took a bite out of a berry.

"Are you crazy? Those things aren't safe to be eaten by humans!" Dawn yelled.

"Lots of berries aren't." Ash said as he chewed on the berry. "But those with healing effects on Pokémon are safe for humans to eat. Rawst, Pecha, Oran and Sitrus. All those types and more are safe."

"Wow." Dawn said as she looked at a berry in her hand.

"Go ahead." Ash smiled. "Try it."

Dawn took a cautious bite. "It's very sweet."

"Yup. Tamato berries are safe for human consumption as well. Where do you think spices come from?" Ash said as he planted the seeds from the berry he finished.

"Pika pika." Pikachu chimed in as he mimicked Ash.

Ash checked his pokénav. "The contest here starts in three hours. Better go wake May." He said as Pikachu climbed up to his perch. "See ya Dawn. Good luck!"

May rolled over and got out of bed. "I guess Ash and Pikachu went to get some breakfast already." She yawned as she rubbed her eyes.

"Pichu pi." Pichu groaned as she picked herself up.

May got dressed, leaving her hair normal for the day, picked up Pichu and headed downstairs just as Ash walked back in.

"I thought you would have been in the cafeteria." May said as Ash pecked her cheek.

"Nope. Me and Pikachu went out and picked some Sitrus berries for breakfast." Ash said. "By the way the contest starts in three hours."

"Three hours?" May panicked. "I can eat when we reach the contest hall!" She yelled as she grabbed Ash and ran towards the hall.

"Since Floaroma town is not very big, the town mayor chose to build the contest hall about a kilometer out of town, near the power plant." May's pokénav chirped.

After an hour of running they made it to the hall.

"Am I too late?" May asked.

"Nope. You still have two hours to register." The receptionist said. "May I please have your pokédex?"

"What?" May asked. "No no no. I'm not a first timer. But I do need this updated." She said as she handed her contest pass to the receptionist.

"Ok then." The receptionist smiled as she slid the contest pass into a scanner. "I just need to take a photo of you." She said as she pulled a camera out from under the desk.

May stood straight as an arrow and smiled at the camera. After the flash went off she rubbed her eyes. "Ugh. I never get used to that."

A few seconds later and May's contest pass slid out with her new photo over her old one.

"Thank you." May said as she took her new pass. Her stomach growled as she did. "I'm hungry." She whined.

Ash dug into his pack and pulled a Sitrus berry out. "Here. Kinda figured this would happen." He laughed.

"Thanks Ash." May said as she took the berry. She split it in half and handed a slice to Pichu. "On half is filling enough for me."

Ash watched as his girlfriend and her Pokémon devoured the two halves. "Sitrus berries. Enough for even the most voracious appetites." He laughed.

"My name is May and I approve this message." May chimed in.

"So who are you going to use?" Ash asked.

"I was thinking Eevee and Pichu for the appeals, then Skitty and Squirtle for battles." May thought. "Anyway I better go get changed."

"Good luck." Ash said after he pecked her cheek. "We'll be cheering for you."

As May headed into the ready room to get changed a trio of figures walked in.

"Do ya see dem?" The shortest figure asked.

"There's a kid over there with a Pikachu. But I don't know. I'll scope him out from the crowd." One of the taller figures noted.

"Well what about the twoipette?" The shortest figure asked again.

"Nope. Looks like I'm in the clear to win this contest." The other tall figure said as she pulled off her cloak, revealing an orange and pale yellow dress with long white socks and black slip on shoes. Her crimson hair was tied into pigtails and adorned with yellow bows; a pair of oversized, yellow glasses with no lens tied the look together. "Jessilina is here!"

The other tall figure removed his cloak to reveal a plain white shirt with lavender shorts, white socks and black joggers. A white strip of cloth was tied around his head, just below his lavender hair. "Be careful Jess. The twerps may have changed their outfits."

The smaller figure chose to remain in his cloak and said nothing as he walked off with the lavender haired man.

"Thanks for the warning James. But I doubt the twerps would deviate too much from their usual attire." Jessilina scowled.

* * *

May stepped out of the change room in her contest costume. Her hair was back in its signature wings style, her Arabian princess style costume once again showing off her figure.

Dawn stepped out of the change room next to her, dressed in her contest dress. "I'm going to beat you this time."

May sneered. "Just try and make it past your first battle this time."

A high pitched laugh came from across the room. "You'll both have me to contend with this time." Jessilina smirked. "Rookies don't stand a chance."

May looked unimpressed. "Competing in two grand festivals hardly makes me a rookie."

"Oh so we have a big shot? It doesn't matter I'll still mwuf?" Jessilina stopped as someone shoved a sock in her mouth.

"Run your mouth after you win you hag." Steve said.

Jessilina spat out the sock and growled. "How dare you!"

"Get over it." Steve said as he walked off.

* * *

Ash wandered around looking for a good seat. "Who'd of thought Floaroma town would have this many people." he sighed. Eventually he decided on a seat next to a man with lavender hair and his pet Meowth. 'This guy looks familiar.' Ash thought to himself. 'Oh well.'

James cheered inwardly when the kid he was looking for chose a seat right next to him. 'The face looks similar, but there are doppelgangers out there, Jessie and Jessibelle are prime examples of that.'

"Ladies and Gentlemen. Welcome to the Floaroma town contest. Once again I'm your host Marian Meridan from the twelve Meridan siblings, and I'm sure our panel of judges needs no introduction, but for those of you just joining us they are Mr. Contesta, one of the joint heads of the Pokémon coordination league and one of the eight brothers, which one do we have? We'll never know! This guy is also everywhere! A large family that spans the globe, Floaroma towns own Mr. Sukizo! Big families galore today as we welcome our last judge, Floaromas own Nurse Joy!" Marian announced as she darted around the stage.

"Well that explains how they get everywhere." Ash said.

"And now let's get straight into our first appeal! Our first coordinator today is a big name around the world! She's young! She's cute! She's sexy! So make her feel welcome because she's May!" Marian screamed!

The crowd roared as the famous coordinator walked out of the entrance tunnel.

"So she is here." James whispered.

"Yeah." Ash replied. "She's here with me."

"Pika pika Pikaka!" Pikachu screamed.

"So you must be quite a big shot if she's travelling with you." James said.

"I've competed in four conferences and beaten the battle frontier so yeah." Ash shrugged. "I guess I'm a big shot."

May was already on stage when Ash finished his sentence. "Pichu, Eevee! Take the stage!"

Eevee came out of her pokéball in a forward somersault, landing perfectly after five rotations.

Pichu arrived by performing a gymnast corkscrew off May's shoulder, not quite sticking the landing, having to use her left paw to keep from falling over.

"An athletic entrance! Can they show us a unique appeal to compliment it?" Marian asked.

"Eevee, dig underground and keep making holes! Pichu get ready!" May ordered

"Vee." Eevee nodded as she leapt at the ground and pushed her front paws to move as fast as possible, quickly disappearing underground.

Before long the whole dirt arena was covered in holes.

"Oh she's going to do a variation on her Terracotta town performance." Mr. Contesta remarked.

"Now Eevee use Shadow ball!" May commanded.

A few seconds, and a short quake, later Shadow balls flew up from each hole.

"Impressive." Mr. Sukizo said. "She had Eevee leave the balls in place then run to the center and use a physical attack on one of the supports between the holes to make the whole network vibrate, which knocked the balls upward."

"Ready Pichu? Do you think you can create the thunder orb by yourself or should we try something else?" May asked her electric type.

"Chu." Pichu nodded.

"The orb? Okay we'll give it one shot and if it doesn't work we'll try something else." May took a deep breath to calm her nerves. "Alright Pichu use Thunder!"

"Piiiiii. Chuuuuuuuuuuuu!" The baby electric type yelled as she poured her electricity into the air.

Upon reaching its maximum range the electricity began to pool into an orb.

"Oh my." Nurse Joy gasped. "Pichu is getting very tired."

"Pichu." May whispered. "If you want you can stop and we can try something else."

"Chu! Pichu pichu. Pi Pichu!" She yelled back, panting in between words.

"Pichu please stop." May begged. "You're worrying me."

Pichu's electricity darkened in colour. A white glow began to pour from her body. A black silhouette was all that was visible from the outside. Slowly it changed in shape. Pichu's ears became more slender and longer, her head expanded in width as her body grew. Her tiny tail grew longer, stopping just as the tip was visible over the head. The tip of her tail indented to form a vague heart shape.

"Amazing!" Meridan shouted. "Pichu pushed herself to impress her trainer so much that she evolved!"

"Pika!" The newly evolved electric type chanted as the glow vanished. "Pikaka. Pipikachu pik Pikachu."

May breathed a sigh of relief as her Pikachu seemed re-energized from the evolution. "Alright Pikachu! Pour it on!"

"Pika." She nodded. "Chuuuuuuuuuuuu!"

The orb grew bigger and bigger.

"Now Eevee fire a Shadow ball into the orb!" May ordered.

"Eevee." The normal type nodded. From underground. "Eeeeeeeee." She cooed as the ball of shadowy energy grew in her mouth. When it reached full size she launched it with a cry of "Vee!"

The ball flew straight and true.

"Pikachu cut the electricity!" May yelled over the top of the crackling charge.

Pikachu stopped the current and watched as the shadow ball flew towards the orb she had created.

The shadow ball entered the orb and imploded, sucking the orb of electricity into oblivion, a shower of lightning bolts poured out of the spot once inhabited by the orb and struck the closest shadow balls, setting them off in a fireworks-esque display.

"A marvelous display. It looked a little worrying there for a minute, before Pichu evolved. But I can't help but think the **im**plosion was meant to be an **ex**plosion." Mr. Contesta wondered aloud as he put down his verdict, a nine point seven.

"Agreed but that Pichu showed marvelous willpower. To the point where she evolved just to finish the appeal." Mr. Sukizo agreed as he put down his verdict as well, an eight point eight.

"While I have to say that as a nurse I'm not pleased with how much stress that appeal put on Pichu, the coordinators care and concern offsets that minor issue. A marvelous display." Nurse Joy nodded as she put down her verdict too, a ten point zero.

"Now let's add the scores together!" Marian announced as the big screen switched from May's mugshot and her Pokémon to a big, black box with three smaller black boxes underneath it.

The three scores appeared in the underside boxes as the big box's number grew.

"Amazing! A twenty eight point five! That's setting the bar pretty high. Can out other coordinators match that?" Marian asked no one in particular. "Let's all give a big hand to May for delighting us with such a powerful appeal!"

The crowd roared again as May walked off, waving to the crowd.

Ash stood up and grabbed Pikachu. "Come on buddy, let's go congratulate May."

James watched as Ash walked off. 'I don't believe it. That is the twerp.'

"Our next contestant hails from Kanto. She has competed in two prior contest leagues but sadly failed to win a single ribbon, according to my sisters. Please welcome her latest alias Jessilina!" Marian announced.

May sat in the ready room and pet her two Pokémon. "You both did an amazing job but Pikachu. Don't scare me like that again."

"Pika." She whined as her ears drooped.

"Aww don't be so hard on her May."Ash laughed as he walked in.

"Pika!" Ash's Pikachu agreed as he jumped off his shoulder to greet his fellow electric type.

The two Pikachu touched tails and let the sparks shower them, a traditional electric type greeting.

"I'm just curious as to why there's the little heart shape in her tail." May cocked her head.

"The same Pokémon from different regions look different. Johto and Sinnoh female Pikachu have these little indents on their tails so males can tell the difference." Ash told her. "But female Pikachu from Kanto and Hoenn don't."

"Then how do they tell males from females?" May asked.

"Scent." Ash said.

"Scent?" May asked again.

"It's colder in Sinnoh and Johto than it is in Hoenn and Kanto so Pokémon from the latter two have a keener sense of smell due to the higher temperature." Ash explained. "Also note how your Pikachu's fur is a darker shade of yellow than mine." He said as he squatted down and pet the two electric types. "Up you both get."

Both Pikachu's climbed up onto his shoulders.

"Eevee return." May recalled her evolution Pokémon.

"We'll let you get ready. The three of us will be cheering for you!" Ash smiled as he headed back to the seating area.


	10. Contest confessions

"…and that is a great score for rookie coordinator Dawn!" Marian shouted as Ash re took his seat.

"I missed Dawns appeal. Must've been good for a score like that." Ash said as he saw the board on screen lit up with a twenty six point two.

"Her Buneary and Piplup work well together. And her confidence is extremely high." James noted. "Quite the contrary to May when she first started."

"Meowth Meowth." Meowth said, trying to hide his accent.

"If she's got confidence she can do anything." Ash said.

"Pika!" The two Pikachu cheered.

* * *

In the ready room, May's pokédex started ringing.

"Hello?" May answered. "Who is this?"

"You're in trouble sis." Max laughed. "Dad is going to drag you back to Hoenn."

"Not if he can't find me." May said in a sing song voice. "Call me later okay, I'm in the middle of a contest."

A few seconds later it rang again.

"Max I told you to call back later." May said angrily.

"Am I calling at the wrong time princess?" The voice said, emphasizing the word princess. "How's the boy toy?"

May's eyes narrowed. "Harley. How did you get my number?"

"Drew is a sore loser isn't he? Especially when it comes to love." Harley laughed.

May's eyes filled with poison as she eyed the green hair coordinator in the background of the video. "Asshole." She hissed.

"Ohhh! Eye daggers." Harely smiled. "Haven't seen those from you princess. Ta ta."

May shook her fist and muttered obscenities under her breath as she put her pokédex back in her bag. She took out a bracelet of aqua colored stones and put it on her left wrist. It responded to the touch of her skin by glowing.

As the glowing subsided she walked over to the center of the room where everyone was crowded to watch the end of the appeals.

"…And that wonderful appeal by Snowpoint city's Zoey finishes our appeals! But will a score of twenty seven point nine get her through to the battle round?" Marian asked. "Let's find out who our eight battlers are!"

Everyone in the ready room watched with baited breath.

Ash clenched his jaw as he waited.

"And in order of points from highest score to lowest score is…May, Zoey, Steve, Grace, Dawn, Kenny, Ashley and Jessilina." Marian yelled as the faces appeared on the screen behind her. "And now to determine the battle order. First will verse last, second will verse seventh, third will verse sixth, etc. etc. So that means May and Jessilina! Come on out!"

Jessilina grumbled at being last on the leader board as she walked out. May followed her out, rubbing her hands together.

"Time to let the rage flow." May giggled.

* * *

Ash watched as May and Jessilina stepped onto the stage. "Should be a good battle."

"If rather one sided." James remarked. "May scored the highest in the appeals round so it stands to reason that she would be an exceptional battler. Whereas Jessilina scored the lowest and is very inexperienced at battling."

"You speak from experience." Ash pointed out. "How do you know May?"

"You and her have run into me lots. The name's Jameson." James said.

"Now I know why you look so familiar!" Ash said. "Try anything funny and you're out here before you can blink."

"Relax twerp. I'm just here to watch the show." James said as he sat back.

"Dat goes double for me." Meowth whispered from below.

"Pika pika Pikachu!" Ash's Pikachu shot at the scratch cat.

"Pika?" May's Pikachu asked.

"Pika pika Pikachu. Pika Pikachu Pikapi pik Pikaka Pikachu pika pik Pipikachu." He explained. "Pik. Pika pik Pikachu pika pik pik Pikachu."

"Piiika, Pik pika Pikachu pik pika pika Pikachu pika?" She asked.

"Pik." He nodded.

"Cool ya jets sparky." Meowth said as he poked his head over the railing to watch the battle. "Jimmy and I are here on friendly terms. I don't got nothing against you and ya girlfriend today."

"P-Pikachu?" He asked as he took a step back, red crossing the bridge of his nose.

"Time!" Marian yelled as the timer hit zero. "This match will be based on points. I think it's clear for all to see that May has won this by a landslide! Would you all give Jessilina a hand for giving it her all!"

The crowd cheered and applauded Jessilina.

"And a hand for her Pokémon Seviper and Dustox!"

The crowd got louder as they applauded the two poison types.

Jessilina returned her Pokémon and walked out.

"Gotta run twerp! Before she does something dangerous." James panicked as he grabbed Meowth and ran out.

The remaining matches went by quickly, with very little upsets, Zoey's Glameow and Eevee beat Ashley's Jolteon and Flareon. Kenny's Piplup was knocked out by Steve's Wartortles but his Shroomish managed to pull out a win. Dawn pulled a surprising win against Grace with Piplup and Buneary making short work of Grace's Gardevoir and Gallade.

"The Semi finals are May against Zoey and Dawn against Kenny! Would Dawn and Kenny please step onto the stage?" Marian announced.

* * *

The ready room was deserted now that most of the other coordinators had been eliminated. May and Zoey watched as Dawn and Kenny walked onto the stage.

"First time they've battled each other. Hopefully Dee dee will be able to keep focused." Zoey said.

"Then they know each other?" May asked.

Zoey nodded. "Dawn, Kenny and myself all know each other from when we were five years old. But I don't think Kenny recognizes Dawn."

"I'm not gonna go easy on you Kenny!" Dawn said as she waited for the board to reset.

"Wouldn't want it any other way. I wonder if Dee dee is watching this?" Kenny wondered aloud.

"Kenny you moron!" Dawn muttered.

"Five minutes on the clock! Points meters full! Dawn and Kenny prepare for battle! Begin!" Marian announced.

"Piplup! Buneary! Spootlight!" Dawn called out as she released her Pokémon.

"Oh! Dee dee! Sorry, you look so different! I'm not gonna hold back just because it's you! Kadabra and Shroomish! Let's go!" Kenny called out.

"Should be a good battle." May said.

Zoey nodded.

May held onto her bracelet.

* * *

Ash watched the battle unfold, the timer seemed to moving at super speed while the points meters were over full. "This is insane." He remarked.

"Piiika." The two Pikachu agreed as they watched.

"Time!" Marian called out. "An intense match that seemed to move at super speed. Who will move on to the finals? Let's find out!"

There was barely any difference in the points meters. After a few seconds of deliberating the judges awarded the win to Dawn.

"Dawn is going through to the finals! But who will her opponent be?" Marian asked as the board reset to show May and Zoey's faces, the timer reset to five minutes and the points meters reset to full.

Dawn headed back to the ready room and sat down, breathing a sigh of relief.

May followed Zoey onto the stage and took up her position.

"Are the coordinators ready?" Marian asked.

"Yeah!" May said as she clipped her bracelet on.

"Yes." Zoey nodded.

"Then let's begin!" Marian shouted as she threw her free hand into the air.

"Glameow! Eevee! Time to shine!" Zoey called out as her Pokémon appeared in a shower of stars.

"A ball capsule! A simple way to ensure an amazing entrance!" Marian yelled.

May grabbed her pokéballs. Blaziken in her right and Squirtle in her left. The bracelet on her wrist started to glow. "Blaziken! Squirtle! Take the stage!"

When Squirtle appeared in her signature entrance, a vertical rapid spin, the glow from the bracelet grew brighter before it enveloped Squirtle. When it vanished Squirtle popped out of her shell and landed, her shell shimmering.

"The bracelet Lizabeth gave me." May whispered. "Squirtle must be close to evolution." May shook her head and focused on the battle. "Squirtle water gun on Eevee! Blaziken Mega kick on Glameow!"

"Squirt." Squirtle nodded as she drew in air, and shot a jet of water out of her mouth. The bracelet started glowing again, enveloping Squirtle and powering up the water gun.

Blaziken heard the water gun coming and jumped over it before his feathers started glowing. He launched into the air and aimed his kick right for Glameows body.

"Glameow shadow claw! Eevee sand attack!" Zoey ordered.

Glameow's left paw absorbed shadowy energy as the feline Pokémon launched towards Blaziken, the energy forming a dark claw with a purple aura surrounding it.

Eevee kicked up some sand to stop the water gun but failed as the jet of water smashed into the vulpine Pokémon. When the water stopped Eevee lay soaking wet on the ground.

"Eevee return." Zoey said as she recalled her evolution Pokémon.

May returned Squirtle to even the playing field.

The sound of combat drew her attention as she watched her Glameow go toe to toe with Mays Blaziken.

"With each failed hit both sides lose points. Someone better break the deadlock or this is going to be a tie." Marian called out.

"Try something else Blaziken!" May called out.

"Blaze." The fire fighting type responded as he pushed himself backwards. He flexed his wrists and blue flames flared up around his body. He positioned his left hand on the ground and waited for Glameow to get closer. When she was about two meters away he charged and tackled her.

"What was that?" May asked, astonished.

"A powerful Flare Blitz by Blaziken but Glameow isn't down yet." Marian called out.

"Glameow are you okay?" Zoey asked.

"meow meow." Glameow panted.

"Blaziken you still good to go?" May voiced her concern.

"Ken." Blaziken said with a thumbs up.

"Glameow Pursuit!" Zoey ordered.

Glameow nodded and charged forward, a dark aura surrounding her.

"Give them a taste of Close combat!" May yelled.

Blaziken waited for Glameow to be right on top of him then unloaded a barrage of punches and kicks straight into the normal type.

"Let's make this a stylish finish! Sky uppercut!" May commanded.

Blazikens right fist glowed bright white as he swung a powerful uppercut into the feline, sending her straight up. When Glameow started falling Blaziken held out his arms and caught her.

"Glameow is unable to battle! Blaziken wins! No need to go to points this time folks. May puts up an expert finish!" Marian yelled.

Zoey ran out and grabbed Glameow from Blaziken. "Thanks for catching her."

"Blaze." He smiled as May returned him.

"That was a great battle Zoey." May said as she walked over and extended her hand.

"Yeah it was." Zoey nodded as she took May's hand and shook it.

"Our final two Coordinators are May and Dawn! Would Dawn please come out onto the stage. Reset the timer for seven minutes and refill the points meters." Marian barked out.

The board reset to show Dawn's face in place of Zoey's, the timer showed seven minutes and the points meters refilled for the last time.

May long range recalled Pikachu to use in the battle since Squirtle and Blaziken were resting.

"We have the results of our sister contest in Veilstone city!" Marian smiled. "The winner of the Veilstone city blue ribbon is a young lady by the name of Ursula. Her Plusle and Minun took down a Tyranitar and Ursaring for a surprising win. But are our Coordinators ready?"

May nodded.

Dawn nodded.

"Alright. A silent staredown! Begin!"

"Piplup! Buneary! Spootlight!" Dawn called out as her Pokémon appeared in a shower of stars.

"Pikachu! Beautifly! Stage on!" May called out a variant of her catchphrase as her electric type landed on Beautiflys back.

"Fly." Beatuifly chirped.

"Pika!" Pikachu smiled as she sparked her cheeks.

"Let's start things off! Pikachu Iron tail on Buneary. Beautifly wrap Buneary's ears up with a stringshot!" May ordered.

"Oh no you don't!" Dawn shouted. "Piplup use peck on Beautifly! Buneary use Ice beam on Pikachu's tail!"

"Piplup pip!" Piplup chirped as he charged at Beautifly, his beak glowing white.

"Bun!" Buneary nodded as she took a deep breath and shot an aqua colored beam out of her mouth.

"Beautifly aim stringshot at the ground! Pikachu keep going, add a volt tackle and transfer the electricity to your tail upon impact!" May called out.

"Beau." Beautifly chirped as she aimed her proboscis at the ground around Piplups feet and shot a long sticky string onto the ground.

Piplup charged headlong onto the stringshot and tripped over.

"Now Silverwind tornado!" May ordered.

Beautifly flew right over the penguin Pokémon and started to spin in place before launching silver blades of energy and whipping up a gust to start them spinning.

The force of the tornado slowly built up and sucked Piplup into it.

Pikachu charged forward and discharged electricity as she ran, forming a bullet shape around her body, which deflected the ice beam.

"No way!" Dawn gasped as she took an involuntary step back.

"They need more training." May smiled. "Finish it Pikachu!"

"Pika!" Pikachu yelled as she pushed herself into the air and brought her tail over her head, the electricity from the volt tackle was caught up in her tail as she flipped and brought it down onto Buneary's head.

The ground underneath Buneary's feet cracked and shattered from the force of the impact. Pikachu pushed off with her tail and landed in front of May.

Beautifly flew out of the top of the tornado and landed on May's head.

The tornado slowly died down and lowered Piplup to the ground.

The timer stopped on twenty five seconds and the board switched to show a close up of May and screenshots of her Pokémon. The word winner was displayed in the background.

Dawn recalled her Pokémon and looked at May. "I've got a long way to go." She muttered before she walked off.

Ash climbed down onto the stage with his Pikachu and ran over to May. The two of them shared a hug before Mr. Contesta presented May with her Ribbon.

"For victory here in Floaroma town, I present you with the Floaroma town red ribbon." Mr. Contesta said as he handed May the ribbon.

"Thank you." May smiled as she took the ribbon. "Alright I got the Floaroma town ribbon!" She cheered as she struck her victory pose.

"Pika!" Her Pikachu cheered.

"We hope you'll join us at the Valor Lakefront for the Wallace cup in exactly three weeks. Until then Bye everyone!" Marian announced.

* * *

Ash and may stepped outside to find it pouring with rain.

"It must've started during the contest." Ash guessed.

"Thank you doctor science." May muttered.

A lightning bolt hit the ground in front of them.

"This is a dangerous region for electric types." Ash said as he pulled Pikachu's pokéball out. "Don't want you getting overloaded again buddy." He said as he recalled his loyal electric type.

"Good idea." May said as she recalled her Pikachu.

Ash rummaged through his bag and pulled an umbrella out.

The two of them walked down the path back to town in relative silence.

"Look May." Ash said as they reached the town. "You know how you asked me why I gave Pikachu the decision to evolve?"

"Yeah." May eyed her boyfriend. "Why?"

"I lied. The reason isn't one of strength. It's potential." Ash said.

"Potential?" May asked.

"Your Pikachu still has potential to grow stronger. My Pikachu reached his when he learnt volt tackle. I haven't seen any improvement. While that doesn't bother me I think it might start bothering him." Ash sighed. "I didn't want to just evolve him because he'd think I did it for strength purposes."

"Ash. Are you okay?" May asked as she noticed tears starting to drop from his face.

"I'm worried. Once he realizes that he can't get stronger then he'll do something stupid. I don't want him to do that." Ash said as he opened the secluded pocket of his bag and pulled out a thunderstone. "It's all here, his ability to continue growing stronger. I'm his trainer. I'm supposed to do what's best for him but who am I to say that he has to evolve?"

"Ash." May whispered. "Just do what you think is best."

They had already reached the Pokémon center by the time the conversation finished.

Ash placed his umbrella on a hook at the door and followed May upstairs. Staring at the thunderstone. As he stepped into the room he clenched his fist around it.


	11. Falling Apart?

Ash and Pikachu sat on opposite ends of the room. Pikachu was curled up on the end of the bed while Ash sat in a corner fiddling with the Thunderstone. It had taken a monumental amount of patience on May's part to calm down the electric type.

"I don't hear anything Pikachu. I think they stopped bickering." May told her Pikachu as she soaked in the tub.

"Pika? Pikaka, Pikapi pik Pikachu. Pik pika pika Pikachu?" The mouse asked from the top of the dryer.

"Never you mind Pikachu. It doesn't concern you." May said as she sank deeper into the tub.

Ash pocketed the thunderstone and grabbed the remote. "Maybe some TV will calm me down."

The TV flickered to life and displayed the region select for the news channel. Seeing something that caught his eye he went to Kanto news.

"Be nice to know what's going on back home." He muttered.

"It's been five days since the negotiations started here in the Indigo league champions room. Champion Lance and the four regional professors are gathered here with the champion of the Isshu region and Professor Araragi to discuss opening the region to trainers and coordinators from all regions." The reporter read from his teleprompter.

"Any footage or info from inside?" The anchor asked.

The reporter shook his head. "I'm afraid not."

Ash backed out to the selection screen and switched to Hoenn news.

"…And while it appears as though Max blitzed the Rustboro city gym, Brawlys fighting types proved too much for him. He will continue to train on Dewford island, similar to Superstar Trainer Ash Ketchum two years ago. His team is largely weak to fighting types as it consists of Marshstomp, Zigzagoon, Poochyena, Kirlia, Munchlax and Aron." The reporter said. "Our colleagues in Sinnoh have been unable to track down his sister, known as the Princess of Hoenn, Coordinator May, for comments."

"Well shit the news media can't leave my family alone can they?" May groaned from the doorway.

"Guess not." Ash shrugged as he stood up and handed May the remote. "But what do you expect. Your father is the most famous gym leader in Hoenn."

"Earlier we managed to track down Norman in Jubilife city to question him. This is what happened." The news anchor said as the picture next to her grew larger.

The camera was pointed at the ground and the cameramans legs were visible as he ran to keep up with the reporter.

"Norman! Norman! People back in Hoenn want to know, What will you do if you find your daughter?" The reporter asked.

"No comment." Norman said as he picked up his pace.

"What of the boy she's supposedly traveling with? Famed trainer Ash Ketchum?" The reporter asked as a picture of Ash appeared on screen.

"I'll decide when I know more about the situation." Norman grunted.

"Rumors are circulating our forum boards that the two are supposedly a couple now. What do you say to those people?" The reporter asked.

"I'll deal with it the way I see fit when I know more about the situation." Norman said as he stepped into the Pokémon center.

"Did we get anything interesting?" The reporter asked the cameraman before the video feed cut back to the studio.

Ash stepped into the bathroom while May slid under the covers of the bed.

As she flicked through the channels she pet her Pikachu who snuggled up next to her. "Are there any good movies on?"

When a search through the channels turned up nothing she settled on a documentary titled "Rare and mysterious Pokémon: The Larousse city incident."

Ash thought hard as he washed his hair. "How am I gonna do this? I could make it look like another stone and have Pikachu pick it up. No. He'd never forgive me if he found out." Ash groaned in frustration. "It's not like I'm gonna be able to trip, have the stone fly through the air and hit him and call it an accident either" He sighed and went back to cleaning himself.

"Wrong." May said for the twentieth time. "How stupid are these people?" She sighed as she turned off the TV.

"Pika?" Her Pikachu asked.

May smiled as she scratched Pikachu's chin. "It's nothing. Just brings up good memories is all." She frowned as she remembered the guy that wouldn't stop hitting on her through the whole incident. "And then there's Sid." She sighed again.

"They finally air the footage that Rebecca took in Larousse city?" Ash asked as he walked in, drying his hair with the towel.

"Yeah but they messed up a lot of the info." May huffed.

Ash discarded the towel and smiled. "As long as we know the truth." He chuckled as he slid under the covers.

May's Pikachu scampered over to Ash's and roused him. After a short conversation they jumped across to the TV bench and curled up.

"You know you still haven't given me my reward for winning the contest." May noted.

Ash chuckled again. "The moment has to be right."

May huffed again, disappointed. "Alright. If you say so." She said as she rested her head on his chest.

"Trust me." Ash said as he stroked her hair. "It'll be worth it."

When he heard her start to snore he slid out from under her and gently laid her head on the pillow. He got dressed and grabbed the thunderstone from his pocket.

"I need some time to think." He whispered as he quietly opened the door. "I'll be back by morning."

He took a stroll out by the river that flowed along the path to the contest hall and power plant, stopping halfway and leaning against the fencepost.

"Oh. So you're out here too?" A voice asked.

Ash looked around and spotted Dawn walking down the path towards him. "Yeah. I just need some time to think about something." He said as he stared at the thunderstone. He saw all the battles Pikachu had won for him, as well as the Spearow incident from when he first started out. And how close he came to leaving Pikachu behind with the wild group back in Kanto.

Dawn glanced at the thunderstone."Your Pikachu? You want to evolve it?"

"Out of necessity not want." Ash sighed as he slipped the stone into his pocket. "He's not getting any stronger anymore. He needs to evolve to keep growing." Ash told himself more than Dawn. "But I couldn't bring myself to do it if he agreed."

Dawn crouched next to him, being careful to avoid letting him see up her dress, she placed her hand on his shoulder. "We all need to do some things we don't like in life."

"You're right. But it doesn't make it any easier." Ash smiled to her. His face changed to one of anger as he realized something. "Argh I'm such an idiot!"

Dawn let go of him and fell back. "Why do you say that?"

Ash stood straight up and punched the fence. "I'm just noticing this now! He probably realized it ages ago and has been running himself ragged trying to make sure I didn't notice."

Dawn stood up and placed her hands on his shoulders. "It's not your fault. He worries about you like you worry about him."

Ash punched the fence again. "Then why? Why didn't he let me know it was bothering him?" He yelled as he picked up a stone to throw.

"Because he knew you'd react like this." Dawn said as she moved in front of him.

"All of my Pokémon I treat as equals. Pikachu is the only exception. He's like my brother." Ash said as he turned away from her. "For his sake, and my own. I will use this stone on him tomorrow."

"No you won't!" A trio of voices came from above as the stone was snatched from his hand by a mechanical claw.

"Great." Ash growled. "I'm not in the mood to deal with you three today."

"Listen is that a twerpish voice I hear?" Jesse asked.

"It shrieks to me loud and clear." James confirmed.

"On the wind!" Jesse announced.

"Past the stars!" James continued.

"In your ears!" Meowth finished.

"Brining chaos at a breakneck pace." Jesse said as she readied a pokéball.

"Dashing hope, putting fear in its place." James stated as he followed suite.

"A rose by any other name is just as sweet." Jesse turned her back towards them.

"When everything's worse our work is complete." James crouched down and lent against Jesse's legs with his sticking out, forming an R.

"Jesse!"

"James!"

"Meowth, now dats a name!"

"Putting the do gooders in their place, we're Team Rocket. In your face!" The three of them finished.

"Wobbuffet!"

"Mime mime!"

"We'll be taking this stone." Jesse called out. She glanced down and noticed a grin plastered across Ash's face. "Why are you smiling twerp?"

Ash broke out laughing and shot a glare up to the trio as he pulled the thunderstone out of his pocket. "Shall we leave the fools Dawn?"

Dawn looked up at the three crooks in their Meowth balloon and glanced to the left of them. "Yep." She smiled, holding back a laugh.

Meowth made the claw retract and saw what the two humans were laughing about. In the claw was a regular river rock.

"Try again Team Rocket!" Ash yelled out as she pulled the other stone out of his pocket. "By the way. He remembers you."

"Who does he mean?" James asked.

"Ask him Jimmy boy!" Meowth said, a look of pure terror painted on his face.

James joined his compatriots and looked to the left hand side of the basket.

Charizard huffed smoke into his face.

"Did the twerp just pull a fast one on us?" Jesse asked

"Yes. Yes he did." James nodded.

"How shameful. Crooks out swindled by dere victim." Meowth sobbed as Charizard poked their balloon with his claw.

"Looks like Team Rockets blasting off again!" The three of them screamed.

From the bushes a pair of eyes watched. "Pearl is about to grow. I repeat pearl is about to grow."

"Make preparations to take it from the Cloyster." The radio buzzed back.

"Wilco."

Ash crept back into the room and slid back into place. He placed May's head back on his chest and quickly fell asleep himself.

May took no notice of the movement, completely lost in her dream.

"_A special occasion at Cameran palace, the Aura guardians that won the tournaments in the past are invited back to partake in a special dance, they are allowed to bring a date with them." Ash read aloud as he lead May toward the palace._

"_And you brought me?" May asked._

"_But of course." Ash smiled. "You are my love remember. Had it not been for my winning of the tournament last year I would have confessed my love to you on the dance floor. But fortune has presented to me this occasion."_

"_What?" May asked again._

"_You shall see." Ash continued to smile. "The invitation states we must attend dressed in the costumes we wore that year."_

_As they ascended to the costume room they stopped at a set of lockers with names printed on them._

"_That one has your name on it Ash." May pointed out._

_Ash looked in the direction she was pointing. "It does too." He said as he opened it. "And it has my costume in it!"_

_May had been distracted by a painting hanging on the wall. It depicted sir Aaron standing next to a beautiful woman. As she looked closer she let out a gasp._

"_What is it May?" Ash asked as he turned around, already dressed in his costume._

"_The woman in this painting. Her dress looks exactly like the one I wore last year." She said._

_Ash noticed the description underneath the painting. "Sir Aaron and his bride to be in his homeland shortly before she died of illness."_

_May continued to stare at the picture._

"_May you might want to get your costume." Ash reminded her._

_May shook her head to clear out of the stupor she was in. "Yes yes. Of course."_

_She ascended the last flight of stairs and entered the costume room. She found her dress rather easily and got changed._

_Ash was waiting for her as she stepped out of the room._

"_An image of loveliness rivaled by none."Ash smiled as he extended his hand._

_May blushed at the compliment and took his hand._

_He lead her down to the ballroom entrance and pushed on the doors._

_A blinding light came from within, causing May to shield her eyes with her arm._

May groaned as the morning sun hit her face. "Darn it." She whined as she sat up. "I was having such a wonderful dream too." She checked her pokénav. "Five o' clock. Might as well get going." She said groggily as she rubbed her eyes. She nudged Ash until he woke up.

"What time is it?" He asked.

"Five A.M." She told him.

Ash groaned. He'd only been asleep for five hours.

May continued to nudge him. "I want to see the flowers along the path out of town wake up."

"Alright." Ash said as he rolled onto the floor. "Ow."

May caught a glimpse of the bags under his eyes as he got up. "You were up half the night thinking about it weren't you?"

"Yeah. Let's go with that." Ash groaned.

May sighed. He wasn't usually this indecisive. "You'll make the right choice no matter what."

Ash huffed, slightly angry due to lack of sleep. "I said it was up to him. Now I'm taking that choice away?"

May shook her head. "Get some more sleep. I'll be back after I see the flowers."

Ash crawled back in bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

May sighed and woke up her Pikachu. "Come on. Let's let them sleep."

"Pika." The electric type nodded as her trainer stepped into the bathroom to get dressed.

The pair crept out of the room and outside where they spotted Dawn and Lucas.

"Come on Dawn. We've got a long way to go to get to Eterna city." Lucas said grumpily as Dawn lagged behind.

With a yawn Dawn glanced at Lucas and grumbled.

"This wouldn't happen if you didn't like to go out for strolls in the middle of the night." Lucas scolded her.

May started following them. 'If Ash was outside they may have run into each other.'

"Well for your information I helped someone with an important decision. Plus… I think I fell for someone." Dawn sighed. "But they're taken."

"Dawn. No. Don't tell me." Lucas sighed.

Dawn looked down and blushed. "Yep."

"Not good." Lucas put his face in his hands. "If she finds out then there will be hell to pay."

May could feel her face burning up. 'If he's fallen for her too then I'll… I'll…' She began before tears started running down her face. She sprinted to the forest leading back to Jubilife city and sat behind a tree crying. "I'll never be happy again!" She wailed. "He's the only one I want!"

"Pikaka? Pi-ka-chu?" Her Pikachu asked.

May pulled out Pikachu's pokéball and returned her. "Just let me think." She sobbed.


	12. Mansion caper part 1

May sat behind the tree for a good two hours sobbing. Her pokénav buzzed. "Message from Ash." She read aloud. She opened the message, a simple text appeared on screen.

"Where are you?" It read.

May typed out her reply and closed her pokénav with an angry huff.

* * *

Ash's pokénav beeped as May's reply came through. A single word appeared on the screen.

"Thinking."

Ash sighed and looked at his Pikachu. Pikachu growled. "Great. You're still angry about last night?"

Ash typed in his next message and hit send.

* * *

May read the second message Ash had sent and sighed. She picked herself up and headed back to the Pokémon center. "He's gonna lose Pikachu if he keeps thinking about it." She glanced at the message again.

"Pikachu is still angry. Decided to do it today. Need you to help me. I'll owe you double."

When she arrived she found Pikachu chasing Ash around the center with blasts of thunder. "Pikachu!" She called out.

"Pika?" Pikachu asked as he continued to blast Ash.

"Calm down Pikachu. It's still your choice remember?" She scolded the electric type. "Now come on. You can ride with me until you calm down."

Pikachu stopped blasting and ran over to her. When he jumped up to her she spun him around and held his arms and tail.

"Now we'll see if he's really going to do it." She whispered to Pikachu. "If he doesn't you can forgive him right?"

Pikachu growled.

"He wouldn't do this without a reason Pikachu." May said.

Pikachu kept growling and bared his teeth.

May sighed and shifted her grip so she had Pikachu held in one hand. With her free hand she grabbed her Pikachu's pokéball and let her out. "Could you reason with him please?"

"Pika!" The female electric type nodded. She climbed up to May's shoulder and tried to strike up a conversation.

Ash walked over and brushed himself off. "Thanks May. I guess that's two I owe you now."

"Pikaka." May's Pikachu chirped. "Pikachu pik pikapi pika pik chu pika."

"That's not true!" Ash yelled. "Everything Pikachu has done for me, all the training, all the effort, even choosing to stay with me over a group of wild Pikachu. I don't just appreciate it. I'm glad he does it. He's like my brother, I'd never intentionally hurt him."

"I think what Ash means is, he's doing this for Pikachu's own good." May cut in. "Can we hurry this up? My arm is getting tired."

Ash gulped. "A-alright." He said as he pulled the thunderstone out of his pocket.

"Move away Pikachu." May said as she twitched her shoulder.

May's Pikachu jumped off and sat on the ground watching.

Ash moved closer and extended his arm. "I'm sorry Pikachu. Please forgive me."

"Pikapi! Pika!" Ash's Pikachu yelled as he squirmed about.

"Someone! Anyone! Help! Please!" A familiar voice yelled out.

"Gah!" Ash fumbled the stone and tried to catch it, knocking it forward in the process.

The stone soared over Pikachu and towards May.

"Ahh!" May half screamed as she turned her head to avoid the stone hitting her face. It bounced off the side of her head and hit Pikachu in the back.

Pikachu and the stone started to glow white as May let go and held her hand to the spot where the stone had hit her.

"I'm sorry! Are you okay May?" Ash asked as he ran over to her and pulled her hand away to look at the point of impact. A trickle of blood ran from the wound. Ash pulled a circular band-aid from his pack and put it over the wound.

"Rai! Raichuri! Rai!" The evolved electric type sighed as he glanced over his new body. He jumped and gave Ash an Iron tail.

"I'm sorry buddy. I wouldn't have done it but something startled me." Ash said as he picked up Raichu and placed him his shoulder. "Feels good. Feels like the first time I put you on my shoulder five years ago. Team Rocket makes for good exercise and muscle building."

Raichu sighed and gave Ash a 'what are you gonna do?' look. "Raichuri. Raichu"

Ash smiled at the electric type. "It's okay buddy. I'm just happy we're still friends."

May glanced at the source of the yelling from earlier and spotted Dawn.

"Ash! May! Please! You have to help me!" She panted as she stopped in front of them.

Ash turned and saw the look of despair on her face. "What's wrong?"

Dawn stood up and pointed toward the town outskirts. "Lucas and I had just stepped out of the town limits toward Eterna forest when we were jumped. Now they've got Lucas and they're holding him in the old mansion in the forest."

"Team Rocket?" May guessed.

Ash shook his head. "Not something they'd do. They would have grabbed his Pokémon and bolted. In any case let's go."

A look of relief crossed Dawn's face. "Thank you. Come on this way." She said as she lead them out of town.

* * *

About an hour and a half later they stood in the forest.

May fiddled with her pokénav, the map screen a mess of static. "It's no use. There's no GPS here."

"Pika." Her Pikachu sighed.

Dawn glanced around and spotted a rock in the corner of the clearing. "The Mansion is due north-east of here."

"How do you know that?" Ash asked.

"Rai?" Raichu added.

Dawn smiled a creepy smile and lowered her head slightly, causing her Midnight blue hair to cover her navy blue eyes. "An old tale speaks of the mansion, also with directions. From moss rock head north-east through the trees and the abandoned mansion shall appear before you. Enter if you dare for those unprepared are never heard from again."

Ash and May glanced at each other and started laughing.

"I've been tortured by Sabrina, separated from my body by a Haunter and trekked through more haunted places than I can count." Ash recounted.

"And I've been dragged underwater and tied up on an abandoned ship and travelled with Ash for two years. The stuff we've been through would have most people giving up on being trainers." May nodded.

Dawn just smiled. "Overconfidence pays the price. Or so the tale says. The confident are the first to disappear." She whispered to herself before she walked in the direction she pointed.

May gave Ash a quick shot to the ribs with her elbow.

"Ow! What was that for?" Ash asked.

"The thunderstone to my head." May huffed. 'And there'll be another if he leaves me for her.' She thought to herself.

Raichu and Pikachu started laughing as their trainers exchanged a small flurry of insults.

The rest of the trip continued in relative silence, the only noise being made by Raichu as Pikachu poked him and laughed.

* * *

"There it is. In all its creepy glory." Dawn announced as the mansion came into view.

Raichu's ears twitched as he heard the faint crackling of electricity. "Rai?"

"Hmm? What's up buddy?" Ash asked the electric type.

May fished her pokédex out of her bag and pointed it at Raichu. "Maybe Dextina can shed some light on that."

The pokédex scanned Raichu. The picture cycled through every Pokémon in alphabetical order until it reached Raichu.

"Raichu, the electric mouse Pokémon." Dextina chirped. "Raichu is the evolved form of Pikachu and is able to store over a hundred thousand volts of electricity. When fully charged Raichu's ears stand straight up. These ears are sensitive enough to hear electricity from up to three hundred meters away."

"So you can hear something Raichu?" May asked.

Raichu nodded before he jumped from Ash's shoulder and bounded towards the sound.

The three humans followed him into the mansion.

"This place is huge." Ash remarked.

Raichu twitched his ears. "Raichu rai. Rai Raichu."

May recalled her Pikachu. "The electricity is in two different areas I think. Pikachu could feel it coming from over there." She said as she pointed to her left.

Raichu pointed forward.

"So you can hear electricity coming from over that way Raichu?" Ash asked as he squinted into the darkness.

"Rai." The electric type nodded.

May placed her hands on her hips. "Well we've got a fifty-fifty chance of finding him."

A flash of white came from her bag as Skitty appeared on the ground in front of them.

"Nya." The kitten Pokémon purred as she looked at her trainer and ran off in the direction Pikachu had sensed the electricity from.

May sighed as she gave chase. "Skitty come back here!"

"Well then." Dawn half laughed. "I guess we should go this way."

Ash nodded. "May can take care of herself. Lead the way Raichu!"

"Rai rai!" Raichu nodded before he lead the humans into the darkness.

* * *

May chased Skitty into the kitchen and found her playing with a fallen pot. "You heard this fall and came to investigate didn't you?"

"Nyaa." Skitty responded as she jumped on top of the pot.

May laughed and picked her up. With her free hand she pulled Skitty's pokéball from her bag and returned her. "I need a lock for your ball. Now then… where am I?" She asked as she looked around. "I hope Ash and Dawn are still waiting for me in the foyer."

"Gastly?" A random Gastly floated through the wall and past her head.

May shrugged and stepped into the hallway. "Now which way did I come from?"

A Bannette drifted down from the ceiling and stopped right behind her and tapped her shoulder.

May turned around looked straight into the eyes of the marionette Pokémon.

"Ban?" It asked her.

May just walked past it. "Nice try."

The Bannette glared at her and chased after her, diving at her back.

* * *

Ash, Raichu and Dawn stood in front of a small generator.

"I think May had the right direction." Ash scratched the back of his head.

"There was an upstairs area." Dawn suggested.

Ash opened his mouth to say something when they heard a scream.

"May!" Ash shouted as he took off in the direction of the scream.

May opened her eyes. Everything was in black and white. The mansion had been drained of color. She stumbled back into the kitchen and looked at her reflection in one of the pots.


	13. Mansion caper part 2

May saw her normal face in the pots reflective surface. The only thing missing was her cap. She breathed a sigh of relief and turned to leave the kitchen. 'Maybe the mansion is just on low level power and it's making everything appear monochrome.'

Dawn stayed at the generator. With a sigh she pulled a transmitter out of her bag. "He's here. Release Lucas."

"Does he have the Pokémon with him?"

"You know he does." Dawn yelled. "Now let Lucas go!"

"Not until we get the Pokémon. Kill the generator then wait in the master bedroom."

The transmitter turned to static and dawn punched the generator, which caused the power to fail.

May stepped out of the kitchen and watched as the Bannette floated off down the hallway cackling in an oddly familiar voice. As she followed the ghost type the hallway walls became lined with mirrors. 'Odd. Maybe I was hypnotized somehow and I'm walking into a wall.' The hallway ended abruptly as she was lost in thought. 'But… but I saw it come this way. If it went invisible I would see it in the mirrors right? That's how ghosts work.'

With a disappointed sigh she turned to head back and meet up with Ash and bumped into something. She looked up and her eyes went wide as she opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out.

"Thanks for the new body. I hope you don't mind the trade." Her own body said.

At that moment the mirrors shimmered and displayed her reflection. She was a Bannette. Her eyes darted around in horror as a quartet of invisible strings wrapped around her wrists and ankles and dragged her through the wall behind her as she watched her body's eyes glow red, the mouth contort into a twisted smile, turn and walk away.

When the darkness cleared she sat up and was relieved to find herself back in the kitchen with Skitty licking her face worriedly.

"Nya nya? Nya?" Skitty mewed.

May looked down and saw her own legs and arms. A pan sat on the other side of the hallway and the back of her head hurt. "I guess I slipped on the pan." She speculated as she returned Skitty. As she pulled herself up a gust of wind blew in from the hallway and shut the door.

Ash and Raichu reached the foyer before the power went out.

"A little light buddy? Let's see if you can still keep control of your electricity." Ash asked.

"Chu." Raichu nodded. He sparked his cheeks and sent a low level currant around his body in a spiral pattern to create a light source.

"Keep it up buddy. Almost got it." Ash grunted as he pushed aside objects in his back pack. "Gotcha." He exclaimed as he pulled a heavy duty flashlight from his pack and turned it on. "I'll have to thank Nurse Joy for the flashlight. No more incidents like Mt. Coronet."

Raichu stopped the current and panted. "Rai. Rai Raichu."

Ash chuckled. "I guess when your charge is stronger it would be harder to maintain a smaller currant. I still have your most recent voltage check. We'll get you tested at the next Pokémon center."

"Rai. Raichu rai." The electric type nodded.

As Raichu climbed back up to Ash's shoulder a procession of ghost types flew past.

"Hey awesome. A Gastly. And a Gengar too. That's a Misdreavous." Ash watched as the Pokémon came out of hiding to eat and play. "But we don't have time to watch. Come on. We have to find May."

"Why won't this stupid door open?" May grunted as she pushed on it with her shoulder. With a sigh she stepped back as far as she could and charged the door with her shoulder out. "Yaaaaaaaah!" She screamed as she approached the door at full speed. Just as she was about to connect with the door it burst open and she charged out and into a tree. "Owww. I'm gonna feel that tomorrow." She groaned.

"But." She said as she looked around. "Where am I? Wasn't I just inside the mansion?"

The bushes behind her rustled and she instinctively reached for her pokéballs, which had vanished as well. Along with her bag and even her clothes. "Where's all my stuff? What am I wearing?" She yelled out as she tugged on the red, long sleeve suit with gold trim that adorned her body. A yellow cape flapped behind her as the wind picked up.

She reached for where her bag had vanished from and felt her hand rest on a metal rod. At least, she thought it was metal. The golden silk gloves on her hands made it hard to tell one texture from another.

Hearing the rustling again she grabbed it and pulled. A long barreled handgun came out of its holster. "Who's there?"

"Relax May." A familiar voice said. "It's just us." Ash said as he stepped out of the bush, dressed in his Aura guardian costume.

"Rai Rai." Raichu laughed.

May sighed and put the handgun back in its holster. "Phew. I came so close to turning you into Johtonian cheese. Where are we? And what happened to the mansion and Dawn?"

"Hey Ash did you find her?" Another voice rang out.

Ash turned back to the forest and yelled into it. "Yeah! She almost put a round through my head but yeah!"

Brock stepped out of the bushes a few seconds later clad in pieces of armor in a pentagonal shape strewn around his torso and some baggy pants. A huge stone hammer with a blade sticking out of one end was strapped to his back. "Well that's not good. You need to be more careful with those pistols May."

"Wait. What's going on here?" May asked.

"Well sis we came to get you for a mission. Mom and Dad need our help." Max said as he stepped out from behind Brock, dressed in light chain mail decorated with an Alakazam motif.

May glanced between them as though they were crazy and sighed. "I must have hit my head harder than I thought."

"Is she going to help us or what?" Another voice asked, this one female. "I don't want to have come all this way for nothing." Misty said as she appeared on a branch nearby, dressed in a blue dress with a raged outerskirt and matching wide brim hat with a crooked conical shape.

"Will someone explain what is going on?" May asked.

Ash pulled out a scroll and handed it to her. "This should explain everything."

Dawn turned on her Pokétch's light app and headed upstairs to the master bedroom. On the bed was a note.

"He has not arrived yet. Once we get a hold of him and his Pokémon then you will see your friend again. Until then you are required to wait in this room. Any attempt to leave and the Gengar will force you back inside. If you continue to resist they will keep control of you until we get him."

As the door closed behind her Dawn sighed and laid down on the bed.

"Raichu hold up!" Ash called out as he bent down.

The electric type ran back over to him and spotted what had caught Ash's eye. "Rachura." He said as Ash picked up the cap.

"May's cap. She must be around here somewhere. Come on buddy." Ash said as he stood up and ran down the hallway.

"So let me get this straight." May said as she pointed at Ash. "Ash the III. Son of Aaron the II and current Aura Guardian. You have assembled the team of Brock the golem, trainer of the kings army, Max the healer, son of the king and my younger brother, Misty the arcane, wielder of powerful water magic and myself, May the bombardier, daughter of the king and older sister of Max the healer to go and stop the invading army of the evil Matriarch and Patriarch, which is being lead by a ruthless general?"

Everyone nodded.

"Sounds like that turn based RPG game I used to play on my computer back when I was five." She sighed. "I get the feeling I'm dreaming again but hell, may as well have fun. Alright I'm in."


	14. Mansion caper part 3

**Sorry for the delay people. Blame my sleeping pattern. And Konami for making one hell of an excellent Castlevania game in Lords of Shadow. If you've played it, you'll notice alot of inspiration in this chapter. So hey, I hope that's not a problem. If it is, well, try not to hate it to much.**

* * *

Ash barreled down the hallway with Raichu following him. "Are they still after us buddy?"

Raichu glanced over his shoulder. Five figures in lab coats were chasing them. "Rai rai."

"Stop! Your Raichu has a power we need!" The lead figure yelled out. "We need the final part! We need the Red orb!"

Ash slowed down when he heard the figure mention the red orb. "In there Raichu!" he said as he pointed to an open closet.

"Rai." The electric type nodded and darted in.

Ash closed the door and stood in front of it with his arms outstretched. "You speak of the Red orb but surely you know it was destroyed two years ago."

The figures stopped in front of him. "We do. But we have ways of recreating it."

Ash shook his head. "You'd risk the world for the orb?"

Footsteps came from just up ahead.

Ash spotted the key to the closet in a crack in the floor and grabbed it. "I'll be back for you buddy." He whispered as he locked the closet and slipped the key into his pocket. "You want him? You'll have to catch me first!" Ash yelled as he took off in the direction of the footsteps.

The lead figure smiled.

* * *

May ran through the castle with her guns drawn, blasting enemy soldiers who stood in her way and executing those who were too weak to stand and fight. "This is too weird. I should have seen at least one other member of the team by now." She told herself as she reached the throne room.

"Maybe I'm late." She guessed as she holstered her pistols, which had been engraved Blazing beauty and Skittish Evolution, and pushed on the heavy doors.

As she stepped through the air grew cold and the doors slammed shut behind her. A light flickered on in the middle of the room and revealed the rest of the team except Ash tied up and gagged in the middle of the room.

"Guys!" May gasped as she ran towards them.

Max shook his gag off. "Sister! Behind you!"

May drew her pistols and turned around, only to get slammed by a spiked green arm. She skidded to a halt against the throne. "Crap. That hurt."

* * *

Ash turned a corner and almost barreled into someone. "May! Thank Mew you're okay."

May hugged him. "Ash. I was so scared! Can we leave now?" She asked as she pushed her hair up from her eyes, revealing a glowing ruby color in place of the usual sparkling sapphire.

Ash returned the hug. "I have to get Raichu first. Some guys in lab coats are after him. They want to restore the Red orb and I think they need him to power a generator or something."

May closed her eyes as she pulled herself out of the hug, when she opened them her eyes were back to the usual sapphire. "Where did you leave him?"

Ash peered around the corner. "In a closet down the hallway. Here, take this key. It opens the closet." He said as he handed her the key. "Also try not to lose this." He added as he pulled her cap out and place it on her head.

"Thanks. Just wait here." May said as she ran around the corner, her eyes switching back to ruby.

* * *

As May pushed herself to her feet a pair of familiar voices rang out from the darkness.

"Long time no see. Not since you brought down our army last time."

"Harley." May growled.

"But the master has been busy preparing us to deal with those cursed guns of yours."

"Drew." She hissed. "Who is this master?"

Harley cackled. "Even we don't know that."

"Even if we did, why would we tell you?" Drew smiled as the lights came on fully.

Harley was dressed pretty much the same as he was in reality except he had a pair of giant gauntlets that mimicked Cacturne's needle arm attack.

Drew was dressed in a black tuxedo with a purple masquerade mask over his face, a long sword was strapped to his back.

A third figure stood with them, dressed in a black dress with her navy blue hair tied back in a pony tail and a black eye mask, a rapier clipped to her waist.

"Dawn. I knew you'd be here." May spat. "Where's your master?"

"Right behind you." Came a fourth voice.

May turned around and pointed her pistols at the voice. "Show yourself coward!"

"As you wish princess." The voice said mockingly.

A pair of glowing red eyes appeared from the darkness before the lights revealed an exact replica of May, the only differences sat in the coloring of the outfit and the weapon she wielded. Her coat was black with a white trim and a red cape was draped over her back and instead of twin pistols, a feudal Johto era sword known as a Meowths claw was strapped to her back.

The cranking of gears and rattling of chains drew Mays attention, she looked up and saw two cages descend from the ceiling.

"My eyesight must be going! I can see not one, but two of our daughter!" A voice called from inside the cage.

"Ahh. King Norman. And Queen Caroline. I'll wipe your weak family from this earth and extract the evil within you." The evil May said. "Then we shall conquer and rule the world!"

"Mother! Father!" Max yelled out.

"Quiet you!" Drew ordered as he unsheathed his sword.

"Hurt him and kiss your brain goodbye!" May said as she leveled her iron sights with Drew's head. "And you!" May said as she pointed her other gun at the head of her doppelganger and clicked a switch in the trigger guard. "I'm sending you back to whatever depraved part of my mind you came from."

The tip of the barrel extended three small fixtures to stabilize the pistol. She pulled the trigger and watched as the bullet flew straight towards her Doppelganger. Harley, Drew and Dawn jumped and blocked the bullet with s trio of ceremonial shields.

May jumped back and smiled. "For being prepared you're still dumb as rocks." She said as she pointed her guns at the tie off point on the rags that held Max and Misty's hands and fired.

Misty ripped her gag out and freed Brock from his iron shackles.

"Heads up Golem." Max said as he threw Brock his weapon.

"Thanks Max." Brock said as he hefted the hammer blade.

"Drew, Harley! Stop them!" Evil May ordered.

"Yes my liege." The two of them answered as they rushed toward May.

"Get outta the way sister!" Max yelled.

May dodged the charge and watched as Drew and Harley clashed with Max and Brock, and subsequently vanish as Max cast a teleport spell.

"Dawn to my side!" Evil May commanded as she stood up and drew her Meowths Claw.

Dawn nodded and drew her rapier as Misty took up a position next to May.

* * *

"Here comes our sleeper agent now. Bannette. I see you successfully took the girls body." The lead figure said.

"Barely." Bannette responded with Mays voice. "She's fighting me off as we speak."

"Then let's make this quick." The figure nodded.

* * *

Misty kept the evil May at bay by using her magic to control a trio swords from the rack above the throne while May dodged and parried Dawns rapier with her pistols.

"Give up Princess! We will have this kingdom!" Dawn taunted as she knocked both of May's handguns into the air and thrust at her stomach.

May dodged the thrust and caught her guns. "Not even in my nightmares." She responded as she slammed one gun into Dawns hand, sending her rapier across the floor and kicking her in the stomach.

Dawn collapsed to her knees and held her stomach, glancing up at May who had positioned her other gun in an execution style. "Please. Reconsider. I'll tell you anything." Dawn begged.

"Any information I need. I can get from my look alike over there." May said as she pulled the trigger and watched as Dawn's eyes rolled back before the blood had even hit the stone floor.

May turned in time to see her evil counterpart run Misty through with her sword and lift her into the air, letting gravity pull her further down the sword before pulling it out.

* * *

Ash crept up to a desk near the closet and listened.

"I'll let him out and you grab him. Then I get my reward." May said.

"That's the deal." The lead figure agreed.

Ash peered round the desk and watched as May pulled a yellow Pokéblock out of her bag.

* * *

May braced herself as she blocked her doppelgangers sword with one of her handguns.

Evil May smiled and quickly hooked her Meowths claw under the gun and flicked it into the air and knocked May back, catching the handgun.

May grabbed Dawn's rapier and rushed her lookalike, dodging bullets from her own gun. When she made it close enough she jumped and kicked the pistol out of her counterparts hand and stabbed it into the ground with the rapier, locking her opponent in place as she retrieved her hand gun.

"Oh what are you going to do now? Execute me too?" Evil May spat.

May kicked her counterpart in the face and watched as they spat blood on the floor.

"What? Not gonna say anything? Skitty got your tongue?" Evil may laughed as she swung her sword at May's knees.

May avoided the sword and picked up one of the ones Misty had been controlling and shoved it through her doppelgangers other hand. "Where is he?"

* * *

Ash watched as the figures all moved to the side and let May open the closet.

"Raichura!" Raichu cheered as he jumped into her arms and took the Pokéblock she offered him. As he chewed on it he began to feel drowsy.

May smiled as the electric type fell asleep in her hands.

* * *

"I don't know!" Evil May cried as her own sword was driven through her spine.

"Taurosshit!" May yelled as she pulled the Meowths claw out. "One more chance or I'll drive it through your lung and simultaneously shoot you in the head and heart!"

Evil May's tears hit the stone and mixed with her blood in the grout lines. Her skin was pale from blood loss. Her face was covered in bruises and cuts, with a few missing teeth from being slammed into the floor. "I'm telling you I don't know! Only Dawn knew. She was the one who captured him. Drew and Harley got the rest."

May reached a tipping point in her rage and went quite. "Then you are of no use to me." She said in a cold monotone. She slid the blade under her doppelgangers neck and pushed on her head with her left foot. A quick schwip sound was heard before the head detached from the body and fell to the ground.

With a quick flourish May shot the chains holding her parents cages up and listened to the sound as they hit the ground. She closed her eyes and sighed.

* * *

When she opened her eyes again, Ash was holding her in his arms.

"Phew. Welcome back May." Ash sighed.

May groaned as she struggled to get to her feet. "Why Ash?"

"Why what?" Ash asked as he held her up.

"Why her? After everything you said in Kanto. We haven't even been here a week and you already have another girl!" May yelled.

"What are you talking about?" Ash asked.

"Don't play dumb with me! Owww! My head." May groaned as she gripped her head.

"Take it easy. Here let me carry you." Ash said as he put one arm under her legs and the other behind her shoulder and lifted.

May tried to protest but fell unconscious after a short period of time.

Ash leant her against the wall and ran after the figures.

Spotting their helicopter out a nearby window he climbed out and let his entire team out of their pokéballs.

When the figures reached the helicopter they were greeted by Ash leaning on the cargo ramp.

"Give me back Raichu." Ash growled.

The figure holding Raichu stepped forward. "Give me one good reason why I should."

Ash smirked. "I can name five. One is Haunter."

"Haunter!" Haunter exclaimed as he materialized next to his trainer.

Ash held up another finger. "Two is Corphish."

A mound of dirt moved from underneath the cargo ramp before Corphish burst up from the ground waving his claws around. "Corphish cor!"

Ash held up his other hand and raised his middle finger. "Three is Pidgeot."

"Pidgeot! Pidgeooo!" Pidgeot cooed as she swooped in and landed on the rotor blades.

Ash switched back to his other hand and raised another two fingers. "Four is Charizard."

With a roar Charizard flew in from the trees and landed with a thud next to the helicopter.

Ash opened a raised his thumb. "And five is Sceptile."

"Tile!" Sceptile announced as he darted in from the bushes and tackled the figure holding Raichu to the ground, grabbing the still sleeping electric type and jumping towards Ash.

The figure pushed himself up and stepped forward. A pendant glinted in the moonlight that was streaming in from the gaps in the trees.

"Huh? The team Magma M?" Ash asked as he squinted to get a better look.

"Dammit!" The figure yelled as he pulled something from his coat. "You'll regret messing with us." He said as he pushed a button.

An explosion sounded from inside the mansion.

"Ahh! May! Dawn! Lucas!" Ash yelled as the mansion quickly began to blaze. "Come one guys we have to help them!" he yelled as he lead his Pokémon towards the burning building.

The helicopter took off as he entered the building.

The lead figure stepped up to a computer console in the cargo bay. A shadowy figure appeared on the screen.

"Was it a success?"

"No sir. That kid we were telling you about earlier intervened again." The lead figure reported. "Operation pearl was a failure."

"I'm not happy Maxie. I thought that the remainder of Team Magma would be able to handle a simple job like this. Maybe I should get one of my more trustworthy assets on the job."

"Understood sir. If it's any consolation it only failed because he blindsided us with a Sceptile." Maxie reported.

"Regiment Aqua is already prepped to recover the Blue orb. And the Adamant orb is within reach of my personal regiment. I already have the Lustrous orb and the Griseous orb will come soon. I expect this all to go off without a hitch next time. Don't fuck it up again!"


	15. Mansion caper finale

May sat blissfully unaware of the fire that was quickly spreading through the mansion.

She awoke inside a pitch black room, clad in the outfit she wore during her dream. "This again?" She groaned. "I thought I was done with this when I killed the evil me."

"But you didn't kill me." A sinister voice emanated from the darkness. A pair of ruby red eyes and a golden zipper smile appeared before the girl. "Welcome to the darkest reaches of your mind. Where all your nightmares come to stay."

"Then shouldn't my nightmares be swarming me by now?" May asked.

"Well… you've never had a nightmare in your life…" A huge drop of sweat appeared on the face. "But none of that matters when I can do this."

The darkness closed in around May, eventually covering her body. The face appeared over the spot where her face would be before it leapt off and formed a perfect replica of her.

May struggled to keep her balance. "What another evil clone? Is my mind even trying anymore?"

"What you fought before was your hatred and mistrust personified. I am not even from your mind." The face said as it absorbed into the shadow figure.

May watched as the face disappeared, colour and detail began to appear on the figure until it was a perfect replica of her save for the eyes which were a glistening ruby red instead of sapphire.

"I know you! You're that Bannette that failed to scare me." May exclaimed as she pulled her handguns out of their holsters with a flourish.

"So you've figured it out." Bannette said as it pulled out its own handguns.

* * *

Ash, Charizard, Haunter and Corphish charged through the burning mansion.

"Charizard. Go find May. Haunter you get Dawn and I'll keep trying to find Lucas. We'll meet outside if and when we find them." Ash ordered.

Charizard nodded and barreled off down the side hallway.

Haunter floated up to the second story and began searching the rooms.

Ash and Corphish sprinted down to the generator room to look.

* * *

May blocked a kick from Bannette. "Give up. This is my mind and you won't win!"

* * *

Corphish and Ash made good time down to the basement of the mansion before a burning piece of the structure fell between them.

"Corphish are you okay?" Ash called out.

"Phish!" The crustaceous Pokémon called back.

Ash couldn't even get near the flaming wreckage. "Guh! Corphish see what you can do about this! I'm going to keep searching for Lucas."

Corphish listened to his trainers footsteps get quieter and quieter until they vanished before opening his claws and shooting his signature orange bubbles at the flaming wreckage.

* * *

Charizard smashed through a wall and found May leaning against the wall on the other side of the hall. With a short grunt he bent down and picked her up, shielding her body with his wings. Before he charged out through the wall that she had been leaning against.

* * *

Haunter found Dawn passed out on the bed and thought on how he should move her. After a few unsuccessful attempts at picking her up and swallowing her, he possessed her and walked straight through the fire by turning her intangible.

* * *

Ash found the boy tied up and unconscious behind a generator. "Great. More time to waste. I could just carry him but that would mean more time wasted." He grumbled as he bent down to untie Lucas. "Hey wake up! This place is falling apart."

Lucas groaned before opening his eyes. "Where the reverse world am I?"

"You're in the abandoned mansion in Eterna forest. Dawn should be waiting for us outside." Ash said as he helped the trainer to his feet.

* * *

Charizard continued to hold May outside. Sceptile held Raichu next to him and Pidgeot patrolled the sky.

"Rai… Raichu?" The electric type groaned as he woke up.

"Well well he woke up did he?" A voice asked.

Four sets of eyes turned to the door of the mansion where Dawn stood.

"Relax guys it's me Haunter."The girl said as she laid down on the grass.

Haunter forced himself out of her body.

"Haunter haunter." He laughed.

Charizard grunted at the ghost type.

"Hauuunt? Haunter haunter haunt." The ghost type replied.

* * *

Bannette fell as May walked over to it.

"Why don't you just leave?" May asked as she picked the ghost type up.

Bannette started laughing. "I have my mission! I will not fail!"

"Get out!" May snarled as she threw the ghost type into a shaft of light that appeared.

May groaned in Charizard's claws as a Bannette was ejected from her body. "Ugh. Hey… can.. you put me down… Charizard?" May asked with a slur in her voice.

Charizard lowered her to the ground feet first.

"Whoa!" She exclaimed as she fell to her knees. She slowly picked herself back up and looked at where the Bannette tried to get back into the air. "No you don't." She growled as she removed a Pokéball from her pack. "Pokéball! Go!" She screamed as she threw the capsule with what little strength she had.

It sailed through the air and struck Bannette square in the back.

"Pay back is a bitch." May growled.

Bannette was converted to energy and sucked into the ball before the antigravity systems shut down and the ball fell back to earth. It began to shake as Bannette bounced around the inside trying to get out. The ball eventually stopped shaking and the red light went out with a "Pwing" sound.

"Gotcha." May muttered as she added the ball to her belt holster before she passed out again.

* * *

Ash and Lucas ran back to where the debris sat.

"Hah ha! It looks like Corphish put out the fire. Corphish! Can you smash through the debris?" Ash called out.

"Corrrrrrr!" Was the response.

Lucas took a step back.

"Phish!" Corphish yelled as he broke through the debris with Crabhammer.

Ash shielded his face with his hand. "Great job buddy. Here you take a rest." He smiled as he returned the panting crustacean.

The two humans sprinted through the rest of the mansion, dodging falling wreckage and flames.

"Ash look!" Lucas yelled as the roof above the door caved in.

"I ain't gonna die in here!" Ash clenched his right hand into a fist and sprinted at full speed toward the door. "Please work. Please work. Please worrrrrrk!" He yelled as he swung his fist at the pile of wreckage.

A slight blue flame emanated from his fist as it hurtled toward the flaming wood pile. When it connected with the red flame they parted and the impact spread through the wood, scattering it about the lawn.

Ash threw himself into a shoulder roll and came up in front of his Pokémon.

Lucas charged out behind him just as the main support for the mansion gave way and collapsed.

Ash returned his Pokémon and gathered May up in his arms before setting off toward Eterna city.

"Ash wait!" Lucas called out as he ran up to next Ash with Dawn in his arms. "Without any of our Pokémon it might be dangerous to travel alone."

"I'll be fine." Ash said as he increased his pace.

"You maybe. Not me. I've still only got my Turtwig with me." Lucas said as he struggled to keep pace with the veteran trainer. "Besides. I want you to teach me how to do the glowy fist thing."

"I can teach you anything you want about Pokémon." Ash said, clearly annoyed, he just wanted to get to Eterna city to see if May would be all right. "But I can't teach you to do that. You have to be born able to do that. And frankly it was a miracle that I got it to work at all. I've had no training in that regard."

"So you fluked it?" Lucas asked.

"Yup. Now. If you want to follow me you can but keep it quiet." Ash said.

Lucas nodded and fell back behind Ash.


	16. Please,stand upThe show must continue

The lights on the stage dimmed as May faced down her last opponent for the unofficial contest in the unnamed town. Ash stood across from her with Raichu and Charizard ready to take on her Pikachu and Blaziken.

With perfect, unplanned synchronization, the two trainers faced the crowd and pointed with the hand closest to the other, May with her left and Ash with his right, and addressed the group of screaming people.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" They both announced. "Please enjoy the show!"

With that the crowd roared even louder at the promise of a good battle. The two trainers faced each other again before the lights blinded May.

When she could see again May realized she was lying down.

"Pika? Pikaka! Pikaka!" Her Pikachu chanted as it ran up to her and nuzzled her face as she sat up.

"Pikachu." May grumbled. "Where am I?"

"Hey." A voice laughed. "You're finally up. You had me scared for a minute there."

"Raichura!" Raichu smiled from Ash's shoulder.

"Ash." May continued to grumble. "Where am I? What happened?"

"Well someone is in a bad mood." Ash laughed. "You're in a Pokémon centre. After Charizard carried you out of the burning mansion I carried you here. Lucas got his gym battle out of the way while waiting for Dawn to wake up and then the two of them split up and went different ways."

"So Dawn already left?" May asked as she swung her legs over the side of the bed. "Why are you turning around Ash?"

"You might want to check what you're not wearing." Ash said.

"What I'm not…" May began before she froze up. Her face went red as she looked down and noticed she was wearing nothing from the waist down. "And this happened why?" She roared.

"Nurse Joy was taking your vitals and making sure all your major organs were still working." Ash said as May pulled on a pair of her panties. "You spent the better part of last night possessed by a ghost Pokémon. Which explains that little outburst after whatever possessed you handed Raichu over to team Magma."

May saw the forgiving look on Ash's face and felt her stomach tie itself in a knot. 'I'm sorry I doubted you Ash.' She thought to herself. "I'm done." She announced as she finished getting dressed. "Now then…"

Ash finished turning around in time to get knocked to the floor by May. "Hey! What are yo…" He started but was cut off as she pressed her mouth to his.

He could taste her breath and feel her tongue as it danced around his mouth for several seconds before she pulled away.

May smiled as Ash stared at her, dumbfounded. "Before you ask. That was the two you owed me as well as a thanks for saving my life."

It took Ash a full twenty seconds to get his breath back. "Whoa." Was all he could manage as he pulled himself to his feet.

May giggled as she pulled a pokéball from her hip holster and scanned it with her pokédex. With a quick marker stroke she labeled it with a Ba. "Alright. Now Come on out!" She yelled as she threw the ball straight into the air.

With a pop sound the ball opened and a white beam of energy materialized into an unfamiliar shape.

"Ban? Banette?" The ghost type asked as it darted it's eyes around the room.

"Welcome to the team jackass." May taunted the marionette Pokémon. "Now let's see what attacks you know."

Dextina whirred through pictures as it scanned Banette. "Banette. The Marionette Pokémon. The evolved from of Shuppet is said to be a doll that became sentient after being discarded, fueled only by thoughts of revenge against those who threw it away. This Banette is female and belongs to the trainer May. Moves known are: Shadow ball, toxic, faint attack and will-o-wisp."

Ash looked over the ghost type. "She seems to be in good health but I don't know much about ghost types. Morty would probably be a better authority on them. I wonder if there's a ghost type leader here in Sinnoh?"

Ash's pokénav whirred and beeped.

"What?" Ash asked as he pulled the device from his belt and opened it. "Hearthome city gym, leader specializes in ghost type Pokémon." Ash read aloud before his pokédex started ringing. "It's a busy day today." He groaned as he pulled the device from his pocket. "Hello Ash Ketchum speaking."

"Ash. I just saw the latest update to your team roster." Professor Oak said.

Ash cringed. "Yeah. And?"

"I was surprised to say the least. But relieved." Oak smiled.

"Relieved? Why?" Ash asked.

May brushed her hair as Ash conversed with professor Oak. "Well… at least everyone's happy for the moment."

"Everyone but me." A voice came from the door.

Just the sound of the voice made May's skin crawl. "Dad… what are you doing here?"

Norman stood in the doorway with his hands on his hips. "I could ask you the same thing. You told us you were heading to Johto alone."

"I'll call you back." Ash whispered to professor Oak before he hung up. "Norman. I didn't expect to see you here."

Norman shot a glare at Ash that stopped the young trainer in his tracks. "I've got my own questions for you but they can wait. I want to speak with my daughter. In private."

"Ash…" May started.

"Not a word from you. You'll be lucky I don't drag you home and ground you until you're twenty." Norman yelled.

May recalled Banette and sent Pikachu outside with Ash and Raichu.

"Uhh. If you need me I'll be in the lobby talking to Tracey." Ash said as he slid his head out the door. When he heard the click of the door behind him he picked up May's Pikachu and fast walked to the lobby. "Kind of makes me glad my father was never around. An angry mother is one thing but a dad." Ash shuddered at the thought.

"Ash. Good to see you again." Came a voice from behind him.

"Tracey." Ash smiled as he turned around. "Although it's only been six days since I last saw you."

Tracey's attention was quickly drawn to the two electric types. "A Raichu and a Pikachu? I'm guessing you're looking after the Raichu for someone?" Tracey asked as he pulled out his sketch book.

"No actually." Ash laughed. "Raichu you remember Tracey right?"

"Rai rai!" The orange electric type nodded.

Ash lifted Pikachu onto his other shoulder "And Pikachu meet Tracey."

"Pika pika." The yellow electric type waved.

Tracey looked back and forth between the two electric types. "You're joking right?"

Ash groaned and pointed at Raichu. "Mine." He pointed at Pikachu. "Not mine. Now I believe you had something to give me or tell me?"

"Oh right." Tracey realized as he stowed his sketch book and dug around his bag.

* * *

"But dad!" May tried to protest.

"Don't 'but dad' me. Just tell me why you felt the need to lie to us." Norman said.

May lowered her head and whispered. "I didn't want Max to come with me."

"What?" Norman asked.

"I said I didn't want Max to come with me!" May yelled.

"Why? He's your brother." Norman countered.

"I know but… I wanted…" May started.

"Wanted what? May if you just tell me the truth I won't be angry." Norman said as he sat on the bed next to her.

"I wanted to be alone with Ash." May admitted, her face bright red. "and he wanted to be alone with me."

"Ah. A chance for some one on one training?" Norman asked.

May stood up and walked to the door.

"Hey I didn't say you could leave!" Norman called out.

May sighed. "As smart as you are dad. Sometimes you're just so stupid. Explain this to mom. She'll understand." And with that she closed the door behind her and ran to the lobby.

* * *

Ash looked at the two small chips in his hand. "This is it?"

"Yep." Tracey nodded. "Small updates. Just some added software and features that Professor Oak wants checked. The other three professors had ideas for the pokédex that Oak thought clutter up the systems so he's thinking about offering them to trainers who want them as extras." The sketch artist explained as he handed Ash an instruction booklet. "Well I guess I'll see you when you get back to Pallet town next year." He smiled as he ran out.

Ash pulled his pokédex out of his pocket and flipped one of the chips up between his forefinger and thumb. With a quick motion he pushed it into an empty slot on the electronic encyclopedia.

"New software detected. Pokémon entries updated. Scanning. Software is as follows: Program 1, Elm tech Evolutionary requirements and checker, scan a wild Pokémon to receive information on how the species evolves. Scan a caught pokemons pokéball to receive information such as experience level and methods of split evolution." Dextina chirped as the synthesized voice ran through the program list. "Program 2, Birch tech habit identifier. Scan any Pokémon to find information about its habits and natural instincts. Final program: Rowan tech origins system. Scan any Pokémon to receive information on how the Pokémon came to be."

"Ash!" May yelled as she ran over to her boyfriend and hugged him. "I'm staying with you."

"Yes." Ash cheered. "Smart and beautiful." He said as he stroked May's cheek with his hand.

May giggled and glanced at Ash's pokédex. "I'm guessing Tracey had something to add to the pokédex?"

Ash sighed. "Yeah. Professor Oak is using us as testers for some features the other professors came up with." He explained. "Only Professor Elm's seems useful. I've got another chip here for your pokédex but let me test the programs first. Hand me Eevee's pokéball."

"Okay." May said as she pulled Eevee's ball from her holster.

Ash scanned the ball with his pokédex and activated Elms software.

"Eevee. Close to reaching evolution state. Three of seven evolutionary forms available." Dextina chirped as three pictures appeared on screen. "Jolteon, Espeon and Umbreon."

"Seven forms? I thought Eevee only had five evolutions." Ash wondered aloud.

May replaced Eevee's pokéball and grabbed her Pikachu from Ash's shoulder. "So did I. I wonder what the two new forms are?"

An explosion up stairs interrupted their chain of thought.

"Hey let me go!" A voice yelled out. "Damn. And I left my pokéballs back in Hoenn."

"Dad!" May gasped.

"Norman!" Ash yelled out.

The couple dashed upstairs with their Pokémon.

"The doors gone!" Ash exclaimed when they reached the room.

"And look who's up to no good again!" May pointed at the sky.

A pair of shrill laughs came from a green basket hung underneath a Meowth balloon.

"An evil as old as the galaxy." A red haired woman announced.

"Sent here to fulfill our destiny." A blue haired man finished.

"Meowth dere's me. Huh? Hey check it out!" The scratch cat Pokémon interrupted as he studied Ash and May. "Da twoips upgraded."

"Huh? Meowth's right. The twerp has a Raichu. And the Twerpette has a Pikachu. James we just got lucky!" The woman stated.

"We're gonna need a bigger electro catcher then." James sighed. "Do we have any spare from before for now Jesse?" He asked.

"I don't think so. Oh well. Plan A for now Meowth!" Jesse yelled.

"Roger!" The feline Pokémon acknowledged as he pulled a control panel up pressed a green button.

A red claw shot out from the basket and grabbed May's Pikachu, dumping her in the electro catcher.

"Tah tah twerps!" Jesse smiled. "Get us out of here Meowth."

"R-right." Meowth stammered.

"Meowth?" James poked the normal type.

"Maybe we should just give dem back Pikachu." Meowth suggested. "Cause they got a pretty compelling argument down there."

The two humans peered over the edge of the basket and saw and enraged Raichu

"Raichuu…Raichuu. Rai rai rai Raichu!" The electric type yelled.

"What'd he say Meowth?" James asked.

"You three may have gotten away for doing this to me. But you won't put someone else through what you put me through." Meowth translated.

Raichu's eyes turned red and red markings appeared all over his body.

"This is…" May started.

"The power of the red orb. But I thought the two orbs destroyed each other." Ash finished.

Raichu shot a huge bolt of red thunder up and into the balloon. An explosion from the back of the basket caused a second Claw arm to fall into view, with Norman in its clutches.

"Dad!" May yelled as she ran underneath the balloon.

The coupling failed and the claw released Norman, just as the balloon exploded and sent Pikachu flying.

"Gotcha!" Ash yelled as he caught the insulated glass bubble.

May dove and caught her father's hand just as he passed by her.

Ash watched as May started to slide off the edge of the building and quickly put the bubble on the ground. "Hang on May!" He yelled as he sprinted towards her.

He dove into a feet first slide, grabbing a piece of debris that had wedged itself into the floor and snatching Mays ankle with his free hand.

With a heave he pulled himself backwards and wrapped his legs around the debris. "Just another day at the office. Maybe Johto isn't so bad."

"Less jokey more pulley!" May called back as she tried to keep a grip on her father.

In a few short minutes Ash pulled May up enough that she wasn't in danger of falling off again and rushed over to help her pull up Norman.


	17. Mysterious challenger

While May helped her father to his feet Ash examined the remains of the room. The outline matched the type of explosive Team Rocket liked to use. Powerful, but mainly a concussive explosive.

"Nothing out of the ordinary. Team Rocket is still Team Rocket." Ash noted as he walked over to where Raichu had passed out.

The ground around the electric type was burned and cracked, the wooden floor creaked as he got closer to where he had set down Pikachu's capsule. With one quick motion he grabbed both the capsule and Raichu and ran back to stable ground.

May hugged her father. "Are you ok dad?"

Norman shook his head. "Yeah. It'll take a lot more than that to hurt me."

"Pikaka!" Pikachu chirped as she jumped onto her trainers shoulder. "Chaa."

"Good to see you're alright to Pikachu." May laughed as her electric type nuzzled its cheek against her.

Norman studied the electric type. "So this is your Pikachu? Did Ash's Pikachu have an egg or something?"

May rolled her eyes. "No dad. We found her as a Pichu when we first arrived so I caught her." She explained as she shot a glance at Ash as he tried to wake Raichu. "Is he gonna be all right?"

"Maybe. I think. The radiation from the stone may have caused the remnants of the orbs power to focus." Ash said as he continued to stare at the pattern in the middle of Raichu's back. "So this is what that Magma grunt meant."

"Team Magma? Didn't we stop them in Hoenn?" May asked as she peered over Ash's shoulder.

Ash shook his head. "I thought so too."

The sound of the door opening drew their attention. "Just checking to see when you'll be leaving. I have another group waiting to use… this… room." Nurse Joy said as she stared at the carnage. "What happened here?"

Ash and May looked at each other and smiled wryly.

"Well this is the first time Team Rocket got blasted off before anyone saw what happened." Ash whispered.

"So how do we explain this?" May whispered back.

"What happened was a trio of crooks broke in and tried to kidnap me and my daughters Pokémon." Norman told the Pokémon Nurse. "A little bit of rampant electricity from the boys Raichu accounts for slight burning but overall the damage is not their fault."

"So the explosion I heard during surgery was the crooks breaking in?" Nurse Joy asked.

"Correct." Norman nodded.

Nurse Joy sighed. "Well then you two are free to go. Sir you are going to need to come with me to give a statement and description of the crooks to Officer Jenny."

Norman nodded. "With pleasure."

Ash and May left the center as the city's Officer Jenny arrived.

"Well… that was an interesting way to start the day." May said as she pulled her Pokénav off its resting place on her bag. A few inputs later and the map for the city came up. "The gym is that way."

"Alright! Badge number two here I come!" Ash cheered.

"Not so fast." A female voice said from behind the couple. "You there in the white cap. You own an Eevee don't you?"

May turned to face the girl. "I do but how did you know that?"

The girl looked to be about two years older than the couple. She had long brown hair with blue streaks running through it. Her eyes were a dull hazel and she was dressed in a white shirt with a short black skirt and thick black boots. "I can smell it on you. Eevee scent is strong. Mind showing me your adorable little freak?"

May nodded and unhooked Eevee's ball from her holster.

The girl dug through her bag and pulled out a necklace made of rocks.

"Eevee come on out!" May called as she let the evolution Pokémon out.

"Vee." The small brown Pokémon called out before it started to glow white.

"Ah. Eevee is evolving." Ash gasped.

"Rai rai!" Raichu nodded.

"No you don't!" The girl shouted as she put the necklace around Eevee's neck.

The glow faded and Eevee shook her head.

"A necklace made of Everstone fragments."The girl smiled as she examined May's Eevee. "You haven't chosen which form you want to evolve into have you little one?" The girl asked as she pulled a box out of her bag and opened it. Seven stones of differing colors sat on a navy blue cushion. "Pick your poison."

"Wow." May gushed. "They're beautiful."

Ash peered over May's shoulder and glanced into the box. "A fire stone, Water stone, Thunder stone, and four stones I don't recognize."

"The others are a Dawn stone dx, Dusk stone dx and bits of moss rock and ice crystal." The girl told them. "The name is Silvia by the way. I work in Candice's gym at Snowpoint city."

May stood up. "I'm May from Petalburg city. I'm the gym leader's daughter."

Ash extended his hand. "I'm Ash. From Pallet Town."

The girls eyes widened. "No way. The Ash and May? Ash Ketchum trainer extraordinaire and May Takatou Princess of Hoenn?"

May looked sheepish. "How do you know my last name?"

"Takatou? Sounds very Johtonian." Ash remarked. "Ecruteak city in particular."

"Of course I know your last name! Both of you are like my idols of Pokémon!" Silvia yelled. "I have to battle with one of you! Please?"

"I'd take you up on that but I want to get my gym battle with the Eterna city gym leader underway." Ash said.

"I can help you with that." Silvia said as she pressed a button on her watch and an extra screen slid out. "C-Gear phone function. Call gardenia."

"Silvia! Hello. Does Candice need some more mulch for her Abomasnow?" A cheery female voice said from the speaker.

"I think so. She was running low when I left to pick it up about three days ago. I'm in Eterna city now but real quick do you have some free time?" Silvia asked.

"Yup. Why? You wanna practice?" Gardenia asked.

Silvia shook her head. "Not today. But I do have challenger for you. And I think you'll recognize him." She said as she turned the watch camera to face Ash.

"Is that who I think it is?" Gardenia gasped.

"You bet. I'll send him right over." Silvia said as she canceled the call. "The gym is straight ahead and then left past the bike shop."

"Thanks." Ash said.

"In return however. I get to battle miss Takatou here." Silvia smiled.

"Sure." May agreed. "Meet you back here in a bit Ash."

"With my shiny new badge!" Ash cheered as he raced off with Raichu in hot pursuit."

"Well then. I'll make you a deal miss Takatou. If you can beat four of my Pokémon in a pair of two on two battles then I'll let you pick out the evolution stone of your choice." Silvia grinned.

"And if I can't?" May asked.

"You get nothing." Silvia nodded.

"Deal." May proclaimed confidently.

Silvia unhooked a pair of pokéballs from her waist holster and threw it into the air. "Glaceon! Bring a cold wind to the field. Walrein! Bring the hurt!"

"Gla." The small, aqua Pokémon announced as it appeared.

"Rein!" The big walrus Pokémon cried out.

"Eevee since you're already out would you mind?" May asked her Pokémon.

"Vee." The fox like Pokémon shook her head.

"Great. Your partner will be Blaziken!" May yelled as she let Blaziken out.

"Blaze." He grunted as his wrists flared.

* * *

**Authors note: So yeah. I finally gave May a last 'll be explained later as to why I chose such a decidedly Japanese last name.I'm kind of working with the fact that very few characters seem to have an actual back story. While we did briefly see May as a kid in the anime we never found out what beach she was at when the incident happened.**


	18. 50 50 mix up game

**Sorry that this chapter is so short. I'm actually thinking about time skipping after chapter 20 to the Wallace cup. so just finishing up part one of this it will get pretty boring going through every town and city.  
**

* * *

"Walrein use hail!" Silvia ordered.

"Rein!" The walrus Pokémon cried before it began to glow blue.

A heavy fog descended around the town seconds before hail started falling.

"Blaziken flare up your flames and get near Eevee!" May shouted.

Blaziken said nothing and simply did as he was ordered. The flames on his wrists and ankles melted the ice that was raining down on Eevee.

"Very clever. But the defensive won't save you for long." Silvia smiled. "Glaceon. I know you're in there somewhere. Blizzard."

May's eyes darted as she looked around for the ice type. 'It can't have just vanished into thin air.'

* * *

Ash checked the sign out front of the gym.

"Gardenia. Mistress of the grass type. Charizard is going to have a hay day. Or Maybe I should use this as a chance to train Haunter." Ash wondered aloud.

"I have to tell you. Fire types are not allowed inside my gym." A voice came from behind the boy. "Not because I'm petty like that but my gym is full of plants and trees and a single stray ember could cause the whole place to burn down."

Ash turned and saw a young girl about his age carrying some shopping bags. She had orange hair with a black under tone that made her look like she was wearing a headband. She wore a black top with a green half coat over the top that left her midriff exposed. Her orange cargo shorts contrasted with the rest of her outfit while her feet were adorned with a pair of green boots. Next to her was a small green turtle Pokémon carrying some more shopping bags in its vine whip.

"So you must be Gardenia then." Ash concluded as he took the shopping bags from the Pokémon and followed the girl inside while Raichu made small talk with the Pokémon.

* * *

May watched as Eevee was knocked out cold by the ice type move. Blaziken was panting heavily. He had put all he had into blocking that last move and finally ran out of strength.

"Blaziken Eevee return!" May called out as she recalled her Pokémon. "I need to know more about what I'm up against." She muttered as she pulled her pokédex out of her bag and pointed it in the direction the attack came from.

Dextina whirred before a picture of Glaceon appeared on the screen. "Glaceon: The fresh snow Pokémon. Glaceon is the ice type evolution of Eevee. A special trait of Glaceon is the ability to turn almost completely invisible during hail."

"So that's one of Eevee's new evolutions?" May asked herself. "Well now I know what it's capable off. Skitty! Banette! You're up!"

"Nyah nyah nyah?" The kitten Pokémon asked as she looked around.

"Ban ban. Banette." The ghost type added.

"Skitty use assist! Banette use Shadowball! Aim at Walrein!" May ordered.

"Heh." Silvia smirked. "Hydro pump."

Skitty's assist turned into another shadowball and the two balls merged striking against the hydro pump.

* * *

Ash scanned the grass type Pokémon with his pokédex.

"Turtwig. The tiny leaf Pokémon." Dextina chirped. "Turtwigs shells are made out of hard packed earth and soil and should be moist to the touch if healthy."

"Cool. Oh hey I know." Ash said as he reached for his pokéballs. Unhooking a ball with the letters SC on the button he released the Pokémon that's inside.

"Sceptile." The forest Pokémon said as he placed his signature twig in his mouth.

Gardenia spotted the grass type and rushed over to it. "Wow! A Sceptile! The leaves on its arms look exceptionally healthy and so do the leaves that make up the tail. You know I'd gladly trade my Bellossom, Vileplume or Victreebel for it."

* * *

"Walrein!" Silvia called out as she watched her ice type fall to the ground, unconscious. "Return. You did your best. Weavile. Show them your speed."

The hail slowly stopped after Walrein was removed from the field. Revealing Glaceon behind May and her Pokémon.

May took no notice and looked at her Pokémon. Skitty was still good to go as she had been running in circles to avoid the hail but Banette had taken a lot of hail shards. "Banette return! Pikachu let's see some sparks!"

"Pika!" Pikachu nodded as she leapt off May's shoulder.

"Oh so you're going to play like that? Glaceon return. Raichu! Let's go!" Silvia announced as she let her electric type out.

"Weav? Weavile weav." Weavile said to the electric type.

"Raichu. Rai rai Raichu!" Raichu answered.

"You have a Raichu? I thought you worked in an ice type gym?" May asked.

"I do. My Raichu has learnt an attack that they cannot normally learn. Raichu Ice Punch Pikachu! Weavile use Dark pulse!" Silvia ordered.

* * *

"Can we just start our gym battle?" Ash asked.

"Sure. But I have a special restriction for you." Gardenia smiled.

Ash looked skeptical. "Ok."

"You can only use Sceptile!" Gardenia squeaked.

Ash sighed. "Your gym your rules. Let's do this."

* * *

**Well let me know what you think. I tried to keep Gardenia as close to her anime persona as possible.I'm kind of disappointed in myself for producing such a short chapter.**


	19. Haida combo

**Almost there. I've set myself a dead line for finishing this part of the saga. The last chapter should be up by the end of the week. I want the first chapter of the second part up on Valentines day or next points to whoever gets the title reference and Weavile's counter reference.  
**

* * *

"Dodge it Pikachu and use Iron tail! Skitty use Assist again!" May ordered.

"Pika!" Pikachu grunted as she back flipped to try and avoid Raichu's fist.

"Nyah~" Skitty mewed as blue flames shot from her body before she rushed towards Weavile.

"A Flare blitz?" Silvia gasped. "From Blaziken I'll bet. Alright. Weavile use that new combo we've been practicing. Raichu use Strength!"

"Weavile. Weaaave!" Weavile crossed her claws in front of her chest and waited as Skitty drew closer.

"Now!" Silvia yelled right before Skitty impacted.

"Vile!" Weavile yelled as she forced her claws to her side with such force that a burst of dark energy mixed with ice shot out from her body knocking Skitty back. "Wea wea wea wea." She panted.

May took an involuntary step back. "What the?"

"Pika!" Pikachu cried out as she was knocked to the ground.

"Pikachu! Skitty!" May cried out as her Pokémon lay on the ground unconscious.

Silvia cheered as Raichu walked over to his partner. "That was great Weavile! If we can master the dark pulse/avalanche combo then you can knock back any attack. Here take a rest."

"Wea." Weavile smiled as she was returned to her ball.

"Three to one with two injuries. Not good odds miss Takatou." Silvia smiled.

May growled. 'My Pokémon are dropping like wild Caterpie.' She thought to herself. "I'm not going down without a fight! Blaziken! Squirtle! Come on out!"

"Blaze!" Blaziken panted as he reappeared.

"Squiiirt!" Squirtle cried out as she landed and started glowing.

"I knew it!" May cried out happily as she pulled the bracelet of the water tribe out of her pack. It glowed white with Squirtle before she changed shape.

Her tail grew bigger and longer reaching halfway up her shell. A pair of ears grew from her head and she got a little bigger before the glow faded.

"Wartortle." The newly evolved water type smiled, baring her fangs.

May hooked the bracelet around her left wrist and smiled.

Silvia smirked threw a pokéball out. "Espeon. I know you haven't battled in a while but please help me out here."

"Peon." The pink, feline esque Pokémon declared as it appeared.

* * *

"You okay Sceptile?" Ash asked as the forest Pokémon took a hit from the grass type in front of it. "That Turtwig is stronger than it looks."

"You noticed?" Gardenia asked. "I deliberately kept it from evolving so people would underestimate it."

"Tile." Sceptile spat out his twig which had been snapped in two.

"Turtwig use another leaf storm!" Gardenia ordered.

"Wig." Turtwig nodded before leaves started to shoot from its shell and spiral into the air.

"Cross leaf blade in front of you and charge toward Turtwig." Ash commanded.

Sceptile did as he was ordered and charged forward with growing green blades from his elbows crossed in front of him.

The leaves came down and hit Sceptile's blades, negating the attack.

"What the?" Gardenia gasped.

"Sceeeep Tile!" Sceptile yelled as he smashed headlong into Turtwig, knocking it into a wall and unconscious.

"Turtwig is unable to battle. Sceptile wins!" The judge announced.

* * *

May watched as Raichu and Blaziken traded blows. 'That Raichu is really strong. I guess I should be lucky that Wartortle and Espeon knocked each other out.'

"Raichu try a Mega Punch." Silvia told her electric type.

"Rai." The orange mouse nodded.

"With a blood kain styling out of thunder punch please?" Silvia asked.

Raichu rolled his eyes and gripped his right bicep with his left paw and threw his head back as the sparks from thunder punch were knocked aside by the light from mega punch.

"Try Mega kick then Blaziken!" May ordered.

"Blaze!" Blaziken nodded as he pushed himself off the ground toward Raichu, spun in mid air and prepared a leg drop mega kick, the light streaming from his leg looked like a comet.

The two mega attacks collided, throwing up a bright light.

"Come on Raichu pull through." Silvia growled as she shielded her eyes.

"Blaziken." May whispered worriedly as she tilted her cap to shield her eyes from the light.

* * *

Ash watched as Sceptile was knocked back by the impact. "You okay Sceptile? If you want we can forfeit and go train some more."

"Tiile." The grass type shook his head as he struggled to get up.

"You okay Roserade?" Gardenia asked.

"Ade." Roserade nodded as she shakily got to her feet.

Ash gritted his teeth as Roserade stood up. 'I was hoping to finish this battle with that one leaf blade.' "Try another Leaf blade Sceptile!"

Sceptile flexed his right arm but nothing happened. "Scep?" He asked as he tried it again.

"Leaf blade isn't working?" Ash took a step back. "Damn you must be too tired. Use pound then!"

"Sceptile." The grass type groaned as he began to run towards his opponent.

"Roserade use tackle!" Gardenia ordered knowing her Pokémon could muster nothing more.

"Rose." Roserade nodded as she charged forward with the last of her strength.

* * *

When the light faded both Pokémon were unconscious. The ground was cracked under Raichu and there was a small series of cracks where Blaziken had landed.

"Blaziken!" May called out.

"Raichu!" Silvia yelled. 'Crap. Now it's three to one. But it's her Banette so Weavile has the type advantage.'

Silvia's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a pokéball opening.

"Seviper grab that Raichu!" A female voice said.

"Seviper." Hissed the obviously serpentine Pokémon.

Silvia quickly recalled her Raichu and looked up at the who had tried to steal her Pokémon.

"Team Rocket!" May yelled.

"Who?" Silvia asked. "Although judging from their name their a criminal organization."

May let her Banette out. "Why can't you just leave us alone?" She screamed. "Banette use will-o-wisp and then shadow ball!"

"Ban." The ghost type chanted as a blue flame shot from her hands and set Seviper's tail on fire.

"Grrr!" Jessie growled. "Seviper return!" She yelled as she recalled Seviper.

"Pursuit." Silvia mentioned.

"Huh?" May asked.

"Tell Banette to use pursuit. It does double damage and cancels out the recall beam." Silvia explained.

"Okay." May nodded. "Banette use Pursuit."

"Ban~ette." The ghost type sang as she formed a purple bolt of energy around herself and charged at the red beam.

"Hey dat's cheatin!" Meowth yelled as he clicked a button and launched a mechanical fist to hit Banette.

Banette continued to chase the beam as the fist passed right through her.

Jessie smacked Meowth in the back of the head. "Banette's a ghost type."

"Oh yeah." The scratch cat Pokémon smiled sheepishly. "I forgot."

Banette caught up to the beam and launched the bolt into it, knocking seviper out of the recall beam and into the balloon basket where the flame made the fuel tank explode.

"Looks like team Rockets blasting off agai~n!" The trio screamed

"Wooobuffet!" The blue blob exclaimed as it popped out of its ball.

"Find someone else to kick your ass every once in a while!" May yelled at their receding star.

Silvia put her hand on May's shoulder. "Calm down. They're gone now right?"

May took a deep breath and sighed. "I guess. Do we still have to battle? I'm kinda out of the mood now."

Silvia slipped a blue beret out of her pack and slipped it on, tucking her hair into it. "Nah. But because you put up such a great battle I'll let you have one of the stones anyway." The ice trainer smiled. "Besides the arcade here just got a machine for my favorite fighting game and I really want to kick some people's ass at it."

"Should we drop our Pokémon at the Pokémon center? I've got a few more minutes to kill waiting for Ash." May asked.

"Nah. I always carry double the healing supplies I'll need. I can pick more up at the mart if I need any." Silvia smiled as she let her Pokémon out and handed out small, gold diamonds. "Eat up everyone!" She yelled as she handed some to May.

* * *

Sceptile was barely standing. He had bruises all over his body and he was panting heavily.

Ash had his fists clenched and his teeth gritted. Gardenia had her last Pokémon out. A Cherubi.

"Cherubi run rings around Sceptile. He can't last much longer." Gardenia ordered.

Ash smirked as Gardenia's Pokémon started circling his. "Sceptile reach out and grab Cherubi as it runs around you."

Sceptile did as it was told and snatched the small Pokémon.

"Now put it on the ground face down and…" Ash swallowed a lump in his throat. "use pound." Ash choked out the order.

Sceptile was surprised but knew it was a last resort. He had next to no strength left and his trainer knew it.

It took all the strength in the world for Sceptile to lift his tail but one swing was enough to knock the small grass type out.

"Cherubi is unable to battle. Sceptile wins. The victor is Ash from Pallet town." The judge announced.

Ash ran over and held Sceptile up. He looked at Cherubi and frowned. "Sorry about that."

"No." Gardenia said. "I'm the one who should be apologizing. I put you under that restriction. You won though and even if you had of lost I would still have given this to you." She said as she handed Ash the Forest badge.

Ash took it half heartedly. "After what I had Sceptile do to Cherubi I don't think I deserve this but. Sceptile put in too much effort for me to not accept this."

"With that out of the way we should probably get to a Pokémon center." Gardenia suggested.

* * *

"I can't decide." May said as she looked over the stones. "After seeing your Glaceon and Espeon in action I kind of want both."

"Well." Silvia said as she played her game. "Why not let your Eevee decide? Damn right! Eat the face rape! Distortion Finish!"

"Oh come on that is such Taurosshit that I can't block that!" The other player yelled.

"It's Taokaka's command grab! You can't block a grab!" Silvia yelled back.

May sighed and let her Eevee out of her ball. "So Eevee what do you want to evolve into?"

"Vee? Vee vee!" She said as she pointed excitedly at one of the stones.

"This one?" May asked a she picked it out the case. The stone was cold to the touch and steam poured off it as the cold air met the warm air.

"Vee." The normal type nodded.

"It looks like an icicle." May commented.

"That's a piece of the ice rock near Snowpoint city. Eevee will evolve into Glaceon if you use that." Silvia explained as she played another round. "Boom! Straight out of a chain revolver into an Astral Heat!"

"Oh come on! I was blocking!" The other player roared.

"The first hit was a low hit then I red beat you into the Astral so you couldn't recover." Silvia calmly explained as her watch started to ring. "C-gear phone function answer. Oh hey professor Araragi. Yeah I'm not too busy. That noise? I'm in an arcade playing some of the new Blazblue. Yes Continuum Shift II. Yes I still main Taokaka and Noel Vermillion. What did you call about? So the negotiations are getting somewhere? The storage systems? Oh so I can transfer all my Pokémon from home over here now? Sweet. Thanks for the heads up professor. Yes I'm still working at Snowpoint gym. Okay. Say hi to mum for me. Bye." She said as she closed the extra screen on her watch. "Come on we need to get to the Pokémon center."

"Well how does it feel?" May asked her Pokémon.

"Gla gla." Glaceon answered.

"Cool. Did you learn any new attacks?" May asked as he recalled the ice type and scanned her pokéball.

"Glaceon. Gender: Female. Trainer: May Takatou. Hatched from egg. Moves known: shadow ball, Ice shard, aurora beam and Ice beam." Dextina chirped.

"Aww. So yours remembered Shadow ball? Damn it." Silvia sighed as they headed for the Pokémon center.

* * *

**Yeah. Alot longer than the preceding chapter and I know some people are going to be disappointed that I kept May's Eevee evolving into Glaceon but Glaceon is my favorite of the Eeveelutions.I've already got the next chapter planned out so it should be fairly long. A little bit of non-sequiter for the final chapter hopefully.**


	20. Promise you'll never leave me

As they approached the Pokémon center May and Silvia spotted Ash and Gardenia.

"Ash!" May called out before she started running over to him. "Ash how did your gym battle go?"

Ash grumbled and said something to Gardenia before he continued inside.

"Did you manage to beat him?" Silvia asked the gym leader.

Gardenia sighed. "No. I lost, barely. Sceptile got beat up pretty bad in the battle though and he's not happy with himself."

May looked confused. "He only used Sceptile?"

"Kinda." Gardenia said sheepishly. "I imposed a restriction on him saying he could only use Sceptile. He's out cold right now and we carried him half way here before he lost consciousness."

"But why doesn't he seem happy to have won?" Silvia asked. "I've seen news footage and normally he's ecstatic at having won a gym badge."

Gardenia rubbed the back of her head. "He had to do a pretty lowhanded blow to win. Mainly because Sceptile was too tired to even walk at that stage."

May ran in after Ash.

"Ash!" May called out as she looked for him. She spotted him following Nurse Joy down to the OR and followed after. "Ash wait."

"May. Can you… Can you leave me alone for a minute please?" Ash asked. "I'm not in the mood to talk to people at the moment." The trainer added before he sat down on a bench outside the OR.

May nodded. "Okay Ash." May nodded as she started to walk back down the hall. Halfway back to the lobby she stopped, turned around and ran over to Ash and gave him a hug. "If you feel like talking later I'll be in the cafeteria."

"Okay." Ash said. "And May?"

"Hmm?" She asked.

"Thanks. I needed that." He smiled.

"No problem." May smiled back before she headed out to the lobby. "Hey Chansey can you give my Pokémon a good rest please?"

"Chanse. Chansey!" Chansey nodded.

May placed her pokéballs in the tray and watched as Chansey headed off to the put them in one of the healing tanks.

"Yes I know about the quarantine thing. Oh come on they've been in their pokéballs at the Nimbasa gym. Yes I'm sure even ask Leader Kamitsure. Yes I'll be waiting." Silvia huffed before she hung up the phone

"Everything all right Silvia." May asked.

Silvia sat down with a sigh. "No it's not. Those eggheads at Sinnoh Quarantine won't let my Pokémon from Isshu through. Even though they've been in their pokéballs for the past year."

"Isshu? How did you get there? I thought they didn't allow trainers in or out?" May asked.

"If you've got Pokémon on you, you can't leave. If you've got non-native Pokémon or pokéballs on you, you can't enter." Silvia explained. "The transfer system has just been cleared to connect with the other regions so I'm transferring some of my old Pokémon out here. Mainly my old electric team." Silvia sighed again. "But until quarantine is lifted on them I'm stuck with just my Glaceon and Mamoswine."

May was about to say something when an explosion rocked the center. "Wow this place is unlucky. Twice in one day."

"Chaansey! Chaaaaansey!" Chansey screamed as she ran out from the smoke.

May gasped. "My Pokémon!" She yelled as she charged into the smoke.

Ash heard the explosion and ran to its source. "Crap. If it came from the healing tanks then my Pokémon are in for a surprise."

"Ash!" May said as he ran up next to her.

"You left your Pokémon here too huh?" He asked.

"Yeah but look. All the healing tanks are empty. Someone stole all the Pokémon!" May pointed.

"That's the third time this month." Nurse Joy sighed as she walked in. "Team Galactic keeps stealing the Pokémon from here to give to their underlings."

"I'm not gonna let them get away with that!" Ash growled.

"Me neither." May agreed.

Nurse Joy pointed at a building just down the road. "That's their Eterna city headquarters. It's patrolled by guards non-stop so it won't be easy getting in if that's your idea."

"It's all right." May smiled. "You'd be surprised at what a young couple can get away with. I have a couple of ideas…"

* * *

Ash pulled on the dress he was wearing. "I don't get how you girls can wear these. They feel so empty under here."

May put her gloved finger to his lips. "Ssh. Don't blow our cover." She whispered as she adjusted her wig. "Besides it was either this the other plan, and I don't do skin tight clothing." She reminded him as she continued pushing the cart.

"I would have preferred that." Ash muttered as he pictured May in a skin tight uniform.

May gave a short giggle as she turned slightly red. "But do you remember the plan?"

Ash waved his hand at the girl. "Yeah yeah. Sneak in, grab the pokéballs and sneak out."

"Halt! You aren't the regular Nurse Joys." A guard called out.

May put on her best Nurse Joy voice and turned to the guard. "Well my sister is back at the Pokémon center answering Officer Jenny's questions and her apprentice Nurse is relaying the bad news to the trainers." She smiled. "So we were called in from Veilstone city."

The guard relaxed a little bit. "The main HQ sent you? Well who am I to question executive decisions? In case you don't know the storage room is underground and the hypnosis room is on the fifth floor."

May waved to the guard and started back towards the building. "Thank you."

Ash waved and followed May. "You lie way to well." He whispered.

May laughed softly. "I've always wanted to do something like this."

* * *

Ash waited patiently as May talked with the receptionist. 'It's bad enough they made me wear this dress.' He thought to himself. 'But did they really have to make me wear panties too?' he sighed as he remembered May laughing in the Pokémon center.

"All right. Thanks." May said as she took the keys from the receptionist. "Come on."

Ash sighed and pushed the cart onto the elevator. "So much for a relaxing getaway for two."

May reached into the cart and pulled the fake bottom off. "Don't worry Ash. Saving the world or killing time between battles. As long as we're together it doesn't matter to me." She smiled as she ducked into the cart and placed the fake bottom on a lip above her creating a lid.

Ash smiled at the words as he covered the elevator camera with the nurses cap off his wig. "Once we reach lake Valor I say we take a couple of weeks to ourselves to relax and get some us time."

May peeked out the top and glanced at the camera. "That's a great idea Ash. Just you and me. We could send all our Pokémon to Oak for the weeks after the Wallace cup." She added as she climbed out in her regular clothes. "Ok your turn."

"Sounds like a plan." Ash laughed as the lid moved. "Ow."

May sighed and rolled her eyes. "Just leave the panties on until we get back to the center."

"Hell no!" Ash snapped back. "That thing was giving me a wedgie. Among other discomforts."

May turned red as she tried to picture what the other discomforts might be. "Fine fine. I hope we can pull this off without our Pokémon."

"Don't worry." Ash said as he pumped his fist climbing out of the cart. "It worked last night it'll work tonight." He said confidently. 'I hope.'

May finished stowing their disguises on the elevator cars roof when the elevator dinged. "Basement. Pre-hypnosis pokéball storage." A robotic voice announced.

May clipped her water tribe bracelet on and waited for it to stop glowing before hitting the door open button. "By the way you still haven't told me what 'it' is."

Ash said nothing as he bent down and placed his hand on the floor and closed his eyes. A weak pulse of blue energy left a trail against his vision. "This way." He said as he took off running.

May grabbed the cart and ran after him. "Wait Ash how do you know…" May stopped when she saw the thousands of pokéballs in trays on shelves.

Ash had already repeated the bizarre pattern of actions. "Two guards in front of the room where our pokéballs are. As well as people inside…" Ash trailed off. "Raichu!" Ash gasped as a pulse of energy knocked him on his ass.

May's bracelet began to glow in tune with the pulse.

"What is wrong with you?" May asked the piece of jewelry. "There's nothing to do with the people of the water for kilometers.

Ash picked himself up. "It's reacting to the energy of the red orb. Keep filling the cart. I'm going to rescue our Pokémon." He told her as he raced towards the door.

May watched him run off and nodded. "Be careful."

* * *

"Raichu!Rai Raichu!" Raichu yelled as he struggled.

"Quiet down you pathetic little Ratatta." Maxie yelled.

Raichu bit and whipped his captors with his tail and was dropped to the ground where Maxie promptly kicked him to the back wall.

"Stubborn as a Tauros." Maxie scoffed.

The marks of the red orb appeared all over Raichu's body as his eyes glowed red and the electricity crackling from his body changed color from yellow to red.

Ash slammed open the door and took a red thunder bolt that Maxie dodged.

"Ha. The child should not prove any more trouble now that he's dead." Maxie laughed.

Ash pulled himself up as a blue flames flickered into existence around his body.

"I-impossible! No hu-human could survive that!" Maxie stammered.

Ash looked at his hands. They were starting to burn. "So the power of the red orb seems to have unleashed my aura." He said as he noticed the flame slowly shrinking. "At least temporarily."

May's bracelet flared with white light for a split second in response to the waves of power clashing.

"What the?" May yelled as she tilted her cap down to block the light.

Maxie ran past her, taking a quick picture as he did.

May watched as he entered the elevator and went up. "For him to run like that something has to be going down." May said as she put the lid on the cart and hid it behind a pile of supplies.

Inside the room Ash was holding Raichu, shielded from the red lightning by his aura.

"May grab your pokéballs and run. I've got mine." Ash yelled as the ceiling began to fall.

"What about you?" May asked as she slid her pokéballs back into their holster.

"I'll be fine! Go!" Ash yelled.

May shook her head and stood where she was. "I won't leave you Ash!" She yelled as she moved closer.

"Get the Pokémon out of here! I'll be fine!" Ash yelled back.

May ignored him and wrapped her arms around his torso. "I'll never leave you." She whispered in his ear.

The light show in the basement lit up the whole town for half a minute before fading into nothing.

* * *

May woke up and looked out the window. The sun's rays shone in. Underneath her was Ash with Raichu beside him. The red orb lay on the ground behind her.

"Ash wake up." May said as she rolled him over. "It's morning. Come on."

Ash groaned and struggled to get to his feet. "It feels like I'm all out of energy. Damn. How much aura did that lightning bolt unleash anyway?"

May was more interested in the red orb and reached out to grab it. An invisible forcefield knocked her hand back though. A second later she held her head and screamed.

'Those with the blood of the water tribe cannot touch the red orb.'

"May are you okay?" Ash asked as he backed her away from the orb.

May just kept screaming until she passed out in his arms.

Ash noted her bracelet was pulsing softly and shifted her to one arm while he grabbed the orb. His hand flared with a blue flame again. "This thing must channel aura." He guessed as he placed it in his pocket. "Hey May wake up." He said as he shook her gently.

May groaned and woke up. "Ugh. Don't let me touch that orb again." She groaned.

"I won't." Ash nodded as he helped May to keep her balance before returning the sleeping electric type. "Now let's get out of here."

* * *

"Why won't the elevator stop?" Ash asked no one in particular.

May was about to say something when the elevator dinged and opened. "The roof?"

May walked out onto the roof with Ash pushing the cart behind her before joining her at the edge. "That's some view." He noted as he wrapped his arm around May's shoulder.

May snuggled into his arm. "It sure is."

Ash grabbed May's shoulder and turned her to face him. "It's not just the view that's incredible."

May blushed as Ash kissed her. The two of them letting their tongues explore the others mouth.

Silvia watched from the street below with Sceptile and Gardenia, the morning sun pasting them as black silhouettes against the orange background.

The two trainers broke the kiss and smiled. "About what you said last night May. I'm sure you won't." Ash said as they turned around and headed back to the elevator pausing only because Ash had to chase after Charizards pokéball to stop it from rolling off the building.

* * *

"Well I hope you take good care of that egg young man." Nurse Joy smiled as she waved Ash and May out.

"Don't worry Nurse Joy. I will." Ash waved back as he carried the incubator out the door.

"I still don't get why that egg was sitting up there in the first place." May mused.

Ash shrugged and waved to Sceptile and Gardenia as they walked past the gym.

"The time is eleven forty five pm. Next destination is Hearthome city. The journey will take approximately thirty six hours." Ash's pokénav chirped.

"Long bike ride right buddy?" Ash asked Raichu.

"Rai." The electric type nodded his head.

"Ready Pikachu?" May asked as they walked into the cycling road entrance.

"Pika!" The yellow mouse nodded.

"You two are Ash Ketchum and May Takatou?" The attendant asked.

Ash nodded. "Yeah that's us."

"We couldn't get a tandem. They aren't allowed on the cycling road. So these rental bikes are free of charge." The attendant told them.

"Thanks." The couple said as they hopped on the bikes and rode out.

* * *

**And well here we are. A second part to the story should follow after the time skip. Chapter 1 of part 2 is already under way but I want it to be a big release so I'll work on getting the first five chapters done and then releasing them all on the same day. Until then enjoy everyone!**


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